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Access to potable water in Haiti: A priority for ACTED and the City of Paris

Paris, January 25, 2010 – With the support of the City of Paris, ACTED is actively involved in the emergency distribution of water in Port-au-Prince in the neighbourhoods of Carrefour-Feuille and in the city of Leogane.

Nine days after the earthquake that shook Haiti, today almost 3 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance: food rations, an access to drinking water and a roof. Water supplies are suspended and the Haitians, living in the streets since the earthquake and often in hazardous sanitary conditions, have no access to drinking water.

In the framework of its assistance to the disaster-affected populations in Haiti, the City of Paris has granted 50,000 Euros of its emergency funds to the humanitarian organization ACTED, to proceed to the distribution of clean water, shelter and hygiene kits, and to support the populations participating in the cleaning of wells and the clearing of rubble as part of Cash-for-Work programmes. This funding enables us to respond today to the main humanitarian needs of 2,000 families.

Allowing access to drinking water

The water distributions will enable the disaster-affected people to use clean water for their immediate needs, thus preventing a deterioration of their sanitary conditions.

ACTED will also contribute to improving rapidly the living conditions of the most deprived families through the distribution of hygiene kits made of first aid goods for washing and cooking (towels, sanitary napkins for women, soap, chlorine, etc). These families will receive these kits and gain knowledge over the importance of hygiene in the prevention of sanitary risks and in the spread of water-born diseases.

The Cash-for-Work activities for clearing the streets will also allow the populations of Port-au-Prince to work for their own reconstruction while gaining an income to buy basic items. These programmes contribute to recovery after the disaster and to building the first steps of the reconstruction of the country with the support of ACTED and the people of Paris.

 

Press contacts

  • Adrien Tomarchio (Communications manager/Paris)
    + 33 (0)1 42 65 61 40 – adrien.tomarchio@acted.org
  • Testimonies of our teams in country and photos of the ongoing activities are available.

ACTED operations in Haiti as of January 25

Present since the first day in Haiti, our teams have conducted food distributions to more than 20,000 people in the the city of Leogane (food rations for 15 days).ACTED is involved in Port-au-Prince through drinking water assistance distributions in the neighbourhoods of Carrefour-Feuille, in the remote city of Jacmel through sanitary operations (construction of latrines and emergency sanitary facilities for 7,000 people), as well as in Saint-Marc where our teams will assist the populations who have recently fled the Haitian capital-city to find refuge in the neighbouring countryside.

The French NGO ACTED intervenes since 1993 on the major humanitarian crises throughout the world, in order to assist the vulnerable populations with emergency relief interventions, reconstruction projects and development programmes in 28 countries. Already active on emergency operations following the Gustav and Ike hurricanes in Haiti in the summer of 2008, the ACTED teams work since 2004 on food security, hygiene and access to water.