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Saving Children's Lives through Clean Water in Haiti
WASHINGTON, DC 20523
PRESS OFFICE
http://www.usaid.gov/
Press: (202) 712-4320
Public Information: (202) 712-4810
2004-109
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 2, 2004
Contact: USAID Press Office
WASHINGTON, DC -- The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and its partners in the Safe Drinking Water Alliance have launched a new point-of-use water purification product developed by Procter & Gamble (P&G) to provide safe water in Haiti where diarrhea is endemic and a major killer of children under five.
USAID's Global Development Alliance (GDA), the public-private alliance directorate for the agency is providing funding for the Safe Drinking Water Alliance. USAID partners in this endeavor include Procter and Gamble (P&G) and three nonprofit organizations - Population Services International (PSI), the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health's Center for Communication Programs (CCP) and CARE. Together this partnership is trying to increase access to safe drinking water by low income people in Haiti. The Alliance is also implementing safe drinking water projects in Pakistan and Ethiopia.
"As shocking and terrifying as the HIV/AIDS pandemic is the lack of access to clean water and sanitation," said Dr. E. Anne Peterson, Assistant Administrator for Global Health. "For those vulnerable populations, water disinfection and safe storage at the household level is a critical part of hygiene improvements to reduce the risks of diarrheal disease and death for millions of children and families."
Water access and quality in Haiti have suffered considerably this year with civil unrest, severe flooding in May and heavy damage from hurricanes in September and October.
Approximately one out of every six people on earth, 1.1 billion people, has no access to safe water according to the World Health Organization (WHO). As a result, diarrhea, often caused by unclean water, bad hygiene and poor sanitation, is the world's second leading killer of children. Water treatment approaches like these have shown reductions of 30-50% in diarrhea disease, with even higher reductions during water-borne epidemics. PSI will use social marketing techniques to sell the product at a price affordable to needy Haitians through commercial and non-profit channels while CCP will promote home water treatment and diarrhea prevention, such as hand washing with soap, through a communication campaign.
The U.S. Agency for International Development has provided economic and humanitarian assistance worldwide for more than 40 years.
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