I was recently contacted by a non-profit organization based in Washington D.C called International Action (IA) to help them raise awareness about the problems they are tackling in Haiti. IA installs water treatment systems in Port-au-Prince, Haiti using chlorinators. Chlorniators, according to IA, are very cheap, simple, easy to install and maintain. It would be interesting to see how this method stacks up against other water sanitation efforts in terms of costs & financing, logistics, sustainability, adoption/use and impact.

Haiti Innovation recently profiled IA: “At the end of five years, IA aims to have installed 500 chlorinators covering most of the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area, giving clean water for the first time to 2.5 million people.” You can view some of the locations IA is working in with their nifty Google maps mashup:

Below is a guest post from Amelie over at IA:

Guest Post by International Action

Among 147 countries Haiti scores last on the water poverty index scale according to the World Water Council (WWC). This means that Haiti is the country with the worst access to clean water in the world.

In fact, most water sources in Haiti are contaminated with human waste and disease. The result is a tragedy. Haiti has the highest infant mortality rate in the Western Hemisphere and this is due to preventable waterborne diseases such as chronic diarrhea, typhoid and hepatitis.

International Action, a Washington D.C based non-profit installs water treatment systems called chlorinators on top of local public water tanks. They now protect more than 450,000 Haitians with clean, safe drinking water in 23 of the poorest neighborhoods in Port-au-Prince.

International Action’s special tablet chlorinators are easy to install, use and maintain, they do not require electricity and therefore they are ideal for the developing world. The system is simple: 10% of the water runs through the device, dilutes the chlorine tablets and mixes it with the rest of the water in the tank. The chlorine levels are safe, pre-set and regularly tested. A chlorinator can provide clean water for up to 10,000 people for the smaller model LF1500 and 50,000 for the larger one LF2000.

The biggest installation in Jalousie supplies a community of 50,000. The local hospital has instantly noticed a reduction in the cases of waterborne diseases which they must treat. Analyses of the water have shown that germs of typhoid, cholera and hepatitis are no longer present in Jalousie’s water; waterborne diseases have virtually disappeared in the communities which have the chlorinators installed.

During the month of December, International Action has installed 6 new chlorinators in the neighborhood of Delmas 30. The population is thrilled because although they receive water from CAMEP — Independent Metropolitan Water Company — four days a week, they do not drink it because it is contaminated. In early December, CAMEP called International Action for help. 50,000 more Haitians are now protected with clean, safe drinking water provided by International Action.

For more information visit our website at www.haitiwater.org