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Haiti - Humanitarian : The Red Cross passes the baton to the DINEPA
17/07/2011 11:02:57

The Red Cross announced this week, that it will make the transition of its water supply efforts to the National Directorate for Water and Sanitation (DINEPA), the Haitian government's water authority. The Haitian Red Cross, supported by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent (IFRC) and the American Red Cross, has finalised an agreement with the DINEPA to passes the baton of the provision of water supply, to the haitian authorities.

As part of the multi-million dollar agreement the Red Cross will provide technical, material and financial support to increase DINEPA's capacity to provide improved water and sanitation services to the population, mainly within Port-au-Prince.

"The Red Cross has been distributing close to two million litres of safe drinking water every day during the ongoing emergency phase in Haiti" declared Omar Robinson, water and sanitation coordinator for IFRC. "But to support Haitian economic recovery, it is vital that we transition these services back to the authorities and we are committed to working closely with DINEPA over the upcoming months to help build their capacity."

Currently, in Port au Prince, Red Cross trucks are providing drinking water to 54 camps reaching about 100,000 people. At the peak of the operation, provided clean water each day to over 300,000 people, distributed close to two million litres of safe drinking water daily, and provided sanitation facilities such as latrines for over 400,000 people.

"The American Red Cross is pleased to help build the capacity of the local water service provider so that it can resume serving the people of Haiti in a sustainable way especially as they transition from makeshift camps back into their pre-disaster neighbourhoods," said Ricardo Caivano, head of the American Red Cross delegation in Haiti.

The Red Cross will provide 15 water trucks and three desludging trucks and will support DINEPA with financial support and training. This will include supporting the building of new neighbourhood water kiosks in areas which are not connected to piped water supply. The kiosks will be managed by community members according to the contract established with DINEPA under the supervision of the Technical Operations Centre for the Port-au-Prince Metropolitan Region (CTE RMPP).

"The process of transitioning water services will be a gradual process over the next four to six months and we are working closely with the communities, so they can give feedback and respond to the changes. We are also working on a series of initiatives which will enable us to transition support not just to the authorities, but also to communities, to water committees and to private vendors" concluded Omar Robinson.

HL/ HaitiLibre