Earthquake in Haiti: Aquassistance and the Fondation SUEZ in a mission to support the NGO ACTED in its emergency intervention

137,000 families were affected by the earthquake in the departments of South, Grand'Anse and Nippes. Approximately 500,000 people are in need of emergency humanitarian assistance, and theTropical Depression Grace (August 16 and 17) triggered flooding and therefore created additional safety risks for damaged homes and people already left homeless by the earthquake. Many public buildings such as hospitals, schools, and churches suffered extensive damage or collapsed completely.

Aquassistance, a SUEZ NGO led by employees and retirees, mobilized an emergency mission with ACTED, already an Aquassistance and Fondation SUEZ partner, which provided emergency support for access to drinking water and hygiene. ACTED has been present in Haiti since 2004 and has extensive knowledge of the Grand'Anse and the South due to the various projects and interventions carried out in the area over the past 10 years, as well as real expertise in emergency management following climatic disasters.

Aquassistance's mission focuses on refining the water and sanitation needs’ assessment in the three departments of Grand'Anse, Sud and Nippes, reinforcing ACTED's Water, Hygiene and Sanitation mobile teams, estabilishing an inventory of the water supply facilities managed by the National Directorate of Drinking Water and Sanitation (DINEPA) in the disaster areas in order to establish, if necessary, a program of repairing, rehabilitating and/or reactivating as an emergency service in the medium term. This mission, carried out by two volunteers who are familiar with Haiti, should allow for the evaluation of the needs for mobile stations (UTE) and the feasibility study, if necessary, of a second Aquassistance mission. 

The Fondation SUEZ’s support to ACTED will allow the continuation and expansion of existing and planned water access activities: intalling reservoirs in order for the affected populations to have access to drinking water for their personal use; daily feeding the reservoirs through water distributions via watertrucking and installing 5 water treatment units. These treatment units have already filled 1,000 one-liter bags of water, which were then distributed to the populations of Camp-Perrin and Cavaillon; distribution of hygiene kits with more than 4,500 water purification tablets (Aquatab) already distributed in the city of Jérémie, and approximately 500 hygiene kits pre-positioned in the city in conjunction with UNICEF; continuing the first interventions to repair the water supply and distribution networks and the water collection systems, which have begun with the repair of the distribution lines in the town of Cavaillon.