Excerpts from UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s remarks to the General Assembly informal meeting on Haiti, in New York today, 3 December:
Collective Efforts in Haiti Will Be Overwhelmed without Massive, Immediate Response, Secretary-General Warns in Remarks to General Assembly
The challenges arising from the 12 Jan earthquake have been compounded by the needs arising from the passage of Hurricane Tomas, the cholera outbreak and increasing political tensions.
The epidemic has spread to all 10 departments of the country, as well as to PAP. The Ministry of Public Health reports that the number of deaths has exceeded 1,800 and the number of infections is approaching 81,000.
Clearly, it will continue to spread, unfortunately. This is a function of a particularly virulent strain of cholera, as well as underlying issues: a weak national health system, poor sanitary conditions and the lack of clean water and other basic services. The WHO and PAHO estimate that the outbreak could affect as many as 650,000 people in the next six months.
This will not be a short-term crisis. We cannot think short-term in our response. Millions of people look to us for immediate survival. At the same time, our response must be viewed within the broader context of recovery and long-term development.
Investment in basic infrastructure is critical — clean water, sanitation, health care and education, durable shelter and employment. Without it, Haiti has no sustainable future, no hope for a better future.
The people of Haiti deserve nothing less.
Full version available here: http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2010/sgsm13294.doc.htm
LGF water technology-changing lives in Haiti
What’s the difference between clean water and unclean water? Well, add to that question the fact that someone will be drinking it and you get an unexpected answer: it’s quality of life.
In order to begin to understand what this really means, lets consider two measures used to determine a population’s health liabilities, Years of Life Lost (YLL) and Years Lived with Disability (YLD). These measures are based against something that many in the developed world take for granted: a long, healthy life expectancy.
In many parts of the world however, the difference between how long and healthy a person could live and how long and healthy they do live is staggering, and much of this is due to the absence of a simple resource. Clean water.
Girl carrying water. Port au Prince, Haiti. May 2010
And, as it often is, the young, the immunocompromised and the poor are the one’s most at risk. In sub-Saharan Africa and Asia, seemingly simple conditions like diarrhoea, borne from by rotavisruses, bacteria, and parasites in water, alone kills more young children in the developing world than AIDS, malaria and measles combined.
The accumulated disability of those who do not die from their disease is equally staggering. Unicef estimates that 443 million school days are lost each year to water-related diseases, and it requires no stretch of the imagination to understand the impact this has on childrens’ education and their future earning potential.
It becomes clear that any approach to assisting the developing world, whether it be primarily ethical, economical, or politically driven, must put the provision of clean water in the central spot. It is the most highly leveraged investment, for any of these concerns, that can be made in any community that lacks access to it.
Think of this, in many rural and urban areas of the developing world, point-of-use (POU) water-quality interventions can reduce diarrhoea morbidity by more than 40%. It is the single most effective preventative measure, and adds millions of healthy, happier, productive days to the world community. Sadly, while these simple solutions await deployment, very difficult conditions are prevalent and persist in many parts of the world, including Haiti, right now.
Kids with new water bottles. St Dominique's School, Marigot
To address this real need, LGF is on the ground in Haiti, working to ensure that as many children as possible have access to clean water. So that they can attend school regularly, so they gain an education that will build the future of their communities, so that they can experience life free from disease, and so that they can live to be an adult.
We’d love to share some examples of our work that demonstrate the positive impacts of water purification at the source and the benefits it brings to the community.
For instance, the installation of an LGF Rapid Response 10,000UF unit at St Dominique’s school in Marigot. Thanks to the generous contribution from our partners, Providence Haiti, LGF had the opportunity of working with local community leader, Father Luke, who knew only too well what access to clean water would mean for his community. Our system produced the first clean water the community had had since the earthquake and now supports a school of 350 children, many of whom were too sick to attend on a daily basis due to suffering severe dysentery. Within days of our system being installed, these children were back to full health and back to school.