We need your help right now in Port-au-Prince. The earthquake knocked out many neighborhood water tanks, but 28 have survived. However, no water is coming to these tanks from the local water agency (CAMEP). So Dalebrun Esther – our Haitian Director – has designed a system to supply water.
Two big pumps – in Cité Soleil and Tabal – are producing hundreds of thousands of gallons of water. Dalebrun is renting 10 water trucks each day to take water from these two pumps to surviving water tanks.
He pays each trucker $100 a day to make 5 trips to water tanks in poor neighborhoods. Each truck holds 3,000 gallons and five loads make 15,000 gallons per day for each truck.
With 10 trucks, Dalebrun is delivering 150,000 gallons to poor neighborhoods in the city each day. And, he is restricting each person to 1 gallon per day.
We are sending more money to Dalebrun to hire more trucks for this effort.
Every $100 can hire one truck per day for 15,000 people.
Before the quake there were some 200 water trucks in the city. We are not sure how many survived, but we will encourage Dalebrun to hire as many as he can. In the first three days after the quake, Dalebrun himself delivered 20,000 gallons using our small truck.
But, it is far more effective to rent the trucks of 3,000 gallons all day long. With your help, we will fill the surviving tanks, reach neighborhoods with no water access, and even supply schools.
As soon as possible, we will shift to rebuilding the damaged tanks and making new 1,600-gallon tanks in our fiberglass factory which we are shipping to Port-au-Prince.
With appreciation for your help,
Lindsay Mattison and Youngmin Chang