Breaking ground in Haiti

Posted: July 15, 2010   By: Sarah Pate

MIREBALAIS, Haiti - It may not look like much now, but a hilly landscape in Haiti’s Central Plateau is about to be transformed into one of the most modern health care facilities in the entire country.

Partners in Health, or Zanmi Lasante as they are known in Haiti, is clearing the land on a 10-acre site in Mirebalais, Haiti to begin construction on a state-of-the-art 300-bed hospital.

In order to provide quality health care, however, clean water is needed—and for that, Partners in Health turned to Operation Blessing.

“One of the biggest problems here in Haiti is the lack of potable water,” Bill Horan said. “There’s virtually no place in this whole country where you can drink from a stream or faucet and get clean water.”

Still worse, even when water is accessed by drilling wells 150-feet deep, there are still contaminants and bacteria in the water table that can cause sickness such as diarrhea and other water-borne diseases for those who drink it.

Operation Blessing is not only helping to drill the wells, but is working with Severn Trent company to set up a sophisticated system of chlorine-based purification to ensure the water is clean and safe to drink.

Operation Blessing has already completed a pump house and drilled a well that will provide drinking water to the construction crews as well as water for mixing concrete, dust control and other construction purposes.

A second well will be drilled later for hospital use only.

“This is a great example of the synergy between Operation Blessing and Partners in Health. They operate 10 hospitals and a number of clinics in Haiti and are an immeasurable blessing to the people,” Horan said.

“We’re honored to be a partner and bring our expertise to the table to not only help the population recover from the horrible earthquake but to help them have a healthier life and standard of living,” he added.