Haiti emergency teams from Vitens and Evides drinking water companies return to the Netherlands

Utrecht/Rotterdam, 27 January 2010. A team of five specialists sent by the two largest drinking water companies in the Netherlands returned from Haiti today. They had spent a week there at the request of local Haitian authorities to provide support in provisionally restoring drinking water services to the capital of Port-au-Prince after the country was hit by a severe earthquake. The team also evaluated the resources necessary for the complete restoration of drinking water provision to the city. The team arrived at Schiphol airport today at 14:30.

Building a drinking water company from the ground up
The team, a joint effort by Vitens Evides International, determined that Port-au-Prince would require the construction of an entirely new drinking water infrastructure. According to Director Gerhard van den Top of Vitens Evides International: “Even before the earthquake, the state of affairs in the local drinking water company CAMEP was far below Dutch standards. Only a small portion of the residents had access to drinking water, and the quality of the water often left much to be desired. Provisional solutions have restored some parts of the infrastructure to service, but more is still needed. In addition to the construction of a new mains network, the reconstruction of the system will involve implementing improvements to the organisation and its operational processes.”

Structural solution
Despite the seriousness of the situation in Haiti, Van den Top does see some rays of hope: “Our people noticed that the local wells provide fairly good quality water. That makes it much easier to supply preliminary provisional solutions. But the general conclusion is that the planned donor conference will have to place a high priority on the construction of a properly-working structural solution for providing drinking water. If the Haitian government approves, then Vitens Evides International would be willing to contribute to achieving that goal.”

NOTE TO THE EDITORS

For more information, please contact Patrick Harms (Vitens Evides International) by calling +31(0)6 13 88 52 35.