She never thought that surviving the earthquake would be the easy part. But now, as the temperatures rise to the upper 90s with intense humidity, dehydration is slowing taking her life. She has survived days with intermittent food, but she can’t last much longer without a sustained supply of clean water. Her tongue is swollen, her throat is on fire, and she has no energy to work or even move.
This is the story for thousands and thousands of Haitians and their critical need is clean water.
For those trapped in tent cities with nowhere else to go, the only running water is in the gutter that flows with trash and raw sewage. I saw children filling empty bottles with this water and cringed at the thought that they would be drinking filth and disease.
Water is also needed in the outlying areas of Port-au-Prince that were affected, but that are not receiving aid as quickly as the capital is.
The Haitian government officials and our partners on the ground stressed to me the great and overwhelming need for clean water. They confirmed this terrible situation that I had seen with my own eyes.
And yes, water has been delivered to so many Haitian survivors . . . but they need more than a single bottle. They need a sustained supply of purified water.
World Help is striving to meet this very need. We are purchasing 46,000 bottles of water directly from a factory in the Dominican Republic. This keeps the cost of a single bottle down to 15 cents a bottle.
These bottles will provide clean water to over 700 families for one week. Each family will receive 67 bottles. And we can do this at a cost of only 10 dollars per family.
Through the contacts I made this week at the United Nations World Food Program, this water will be shipped for free, saving thousands of dollars. That means that every dollar we receive will go directly to providing drinking water.
Clean water equals life. And if the survivors of this massive earthquake are to not only survive . . . but also overcome . . . they need water. And we are the ones that can help them.