September 20, 2004 Dear Everybody: I owe it to you to give you an update on what Clean Water for Haiti is doing right now in light of the disastrous flooding caused by tropical storm Jeanne. Also, I keep receiving dozens of “where are you are you still alive e-mails” and I would like to lay any rumors to rest. The worst way Clean Water for Haiti has been affected by any of the recent storms is that the coconut trees I planted on our beach were washed away by huge waves. Gonaives, however, has suffered a terrible blow. The cost in lives estimated so far is 1500 killed and another 1200 missing. The home of my good friend Daniel Cadet is now filled with mud about ¼ of the way to the ceiling, and all he had there was lost. Most of Gonaives was built on flood plain, and every home on that flood plain had been damaged in some way. The damage is so bad that people are saying that nobody should return to the flood area and instead rebuild their homes in the hills surrounding the former city. Theft and looting are rampant as people who haven’t been able to find adequate food for days are getting desperate. Perhaps just as severe as the initial cost in human life will be the aftermath, as fresh sources of drinking water are no longer existent. Many open wells (and outhouses too) were filled up with mud during the flooding. The only water left in much of the city is filled with the rotting corpses of people and animals. Yesterday I coordinated with three of the filter technicians Clean Water for Haiti has trained, including Daniel Cadet, who is not only a friend, but a filter technician as well. Daniel managed to find dry land on which to build the filters as well as accommodation for the other two technicians. Together, we managed to transport 10 filter molds belonging to Clean Water for Haiti along with 7 other molds into Gonaives, where starting today they will be used to produce biosand filters. I am still unclear on how the administration of the program will be, but I decided it was most important to start building filters as soon as possible. If things go according to the tentative plan, then World Vision will provide $11,000 to fund the first 300 filters, and CARE, as one of the primary relief providers to the area, will be involved to find good locations for filters to be installed and check up on their use. If the first 300 filters can be made quickly and remain high quality, we will probably be asked to install more. In this disaster situation, filters won’t be immediate relief, but they will help tremendously with decreasing water borne diseases in the months following the disaster. I would like to pause for a moment to put Haiti’s most recent disaster in perspective. Over 2000 people are dead from tropical storm Jeanne when it hit Haiti. Less than 50 people died when Category 5 hurricane Ivan hit Florida. Approximately 1900 died in the area of Fond Verettes, Haiti in May due to “heavy rains”. The death toll from Haiti’s political turmoil in January-March are very hard to gage, but number something over 1000. The average lifespan of a Haitian is less than 50 years of age. Haiti is essentially one big disaster zone. There will be more flooding and death next year, because the country is hopelessly deforested and urban planning and flood control are nonexistent. Quite likely there will be more political trouble and assassinations too, because as most Haitians agree, it has become part of life in Haiti. Clean Water for Haiti has not, until this week, been a disaster relief organization. We are a Christian humanitarian mission working towards sustainable development in Haiti’s water Quality. However, if this current project goes well we will choose to become a part of future relief efforts with other large biosand installations. I want to encourage you to help us be better prepared for future disasters by continuing to support Clean Water for Haiti. Your donations to the mission this year made it possible for us to have the 10 molds built that we had sitting here when they were needed and they mean that now disaster has struck, there is money available for immediate use without having to quickly seek out funding sources. Unfortunately, if you consider that Haiti has suffered 3 disasters in the first nine months of the year, we could actually be due for yet another one before the year is out. Before I begin to discuss other mission business and tell about my trip to Gonaives, here is our donation information. As I mentioned, Yesterday I drove to Gonaives with 16 molds, 2 technicians, 18 bags of cement and lots of tools. The truck was very heavy, but the road to Gonaives has been improving over the last several months due to the United Nations presence. Unfortunately, approximately 1 mile of the road now runs through an enormous, muddy lake due to immense flooding in the desert. It is very strange to see cactuses poking out of 6-10 foot deep water. The only way to stay on the road is by guesswork. There are sparse bits of vegetation on either side of the roadway, and if you are careful, you can judge where the road is and stay on it. There is a school bus and a huge 6X6 United Nations truck overturned on the sides of the road. As we passed through the water, we actually had a bow wave, and I came to think of us as having a bow and stern. Fortunately, our truck is a very strong Daihatsu Delta (unavailable in North America) with a snorkel on the intake manifold, so even after my feet started getting wet, the engine worked perfectly. The one problem during our trip across the lake was with the clutch, which was not made to work underwater. When I changed gears, it began to slip very badly, but I managed to crawl out of the lake in first gear. I must admit I was scared risking the mission’s most valuable piece of capital equipment in this effort and prayed the entire journey through the lake which was filled with stalled trucks and busses. When the mission finally has enough money to buy a second vehicle, I intend to get a second Daihatsu Delta because it proved itself so well yesterday. We arrived at the site of some high ground where Daniel had arranged for the technicians to build filters. The scope of the disaster struck me when Daniel told me none of the supplies needed for filter construction are available in Gonaives. Every bag of cement became saturated with water. Thankfully, we didn’t have to go all the way into downtown Gonaives yesterday to do the things we needed to. The stories and pictures on the news websites about the disaster are enough to show how desperate the people are and how dire the situation is. I was too busy to take any pictures of our trip into Gonaives but I found some pictures of the route we took on a news website. In last month’s website, I included a picture of Nikki Forfar and our old and new filters for comparison, but I didn’t explain anything about it! I have long wanted to reduce the weight of the filter without compromising performance. I spoke with CAWST (the Center for Affordable Health and Sanitation Technology) about possibilities for improving the design, and when an engineer came to visit us, he came up with a new mold design that is just great. The filter weight has been reduced from 330lbs to a mere 160. Seven of the 17 molds being used in Gonaives are of the new design, and they will be especially useful when getting into hard to reach areas. Transportation is hard in Haiti at the best of times. The new filter design will definitely help our program here in Haiti, and it may turn out to be the most significant development this year. Haiti is an ancient Arawak word meaning “mountainous land”, and 330 pound filters are nearly impossible to drag up a mountain side. A 160 pound filter is a snap in comparison. I was not at all prepared to take on a disaster related project on Monday when I returned from vacation. I haven’t even gotten around to unpacking luggage properly yet. I admit to being scared of the Gonaives project, because its success could mean so much to so many yet so much could go wrong. Please pray whenever you think about what we are trying to do, especially as the timing coincides with the upcoming training we are holding to follow up with technicians and organizations we’ve trained in the past. As I will continue to do, I must again appeal for long-term volunteers to come work with the mission as our needs still haven’t been met and we are still unable to drill wells because of a staff need. So if want to save lives, work really hard in the hot sun, drive a truck until water starts to come through the doors or help those less fortunate than yourself, consider changing your lifestyle and coming to Clean Water for Haiti to serve God in a very tangible manner. Did I mention the mission is located on the beach? Sincerest thanks for your prayers and support, Chris Rolling |