Red Cross Blogs

Loos will save lives in Haiti

By Claire Durham
January 24, 2010 at 11:00 am

The smell of the jet fuel, the roar of the engine, the sting of the icy rain. That was last Friday as I stood on the tarmac at East Midlands airport with one thing on my to-do list – send the Mass Sanitation Module (MSM) Emergency Response Unit (ERU) to Haiti following the earthquake.

After a disaster there is always the fear that disease will spread amongst the survivors, pushing up the already mounting death toll. One of the biggest concerns is that the presence of dead bodies will increase this. There is panic and a rush to inter the deceased into mass graves. This can lead to problems later down the line either emotionally where loved ones have not been properly identified which makes the grieving process harder or practically where a death cannot be proved. Without a death certificate sorting out the inheritance of land or money can be a legal nightmare. In Indonesia after the Tsunami the mass burials occurred and then later the bodies were exhumed to allow for the identification process to take place.

And sadly this fear is based on myth. The people in Haiti have died due to injuries not infection and so there is no disease to pass on. Instead common diarrhoeal illnesses caused by contaminated water sources and a lack of good hygiene practises are going to put the people most at risk. Particularly the very old and the very young.

That is why the MSM is such a brilliant kit and so very much needed. Reports are saying that ninety percent of buildings have been destroyed in towns close to the epicentre. That’s houses, schools, shops, and toilets. Were you concerned about the loss of toilets? They aren’t necessarily the first thing that comes to mind in the aftermath of a disaster but without them there is a real risk that sewage will get into the drinking water and make people very sick.

That is why the MSM kit contains a mini-digger and latrines so that temporary toilet blocks can be constructed, giving people a dignified place to spend a penny whilst also protecting the local water source from contamination. The rapid latrines are quick to put up and are also a simple design which can be copied and made in country. This will allow far more to be built than I was able to load on the flight last Friday.

Another way disease is spread is through pests such as flies and mosquitoes. The kit contains disinfectant and sprayers to kill these insects. Getting rid of rubbish which can attract rats will also be something that the MSM team will look at. Methods include burning, burying, recycling and composting and what ever worked best for Port au Prince will be put into action.

As well as the equipment that comes with the MSM, a large part of the success of the team comes through showing families simple and practical actions that can stop the spread of disease. When your way of life has quite literally crumbled around you, it is much harder to maintain your usual standard of cleanliness or you may have to adopt new ways. So knowing to cover buckets of water to that they can’t be used as a breeding ground for mosquitoes, or boiling water before drinking can save your life.

Through posters, focus group discussions or radio broadcasts the messages can get out to a wide number of people quickly. Debunking such myths as children’s poo is less harmful than adults – it’s actually far more dangerous because kids have less well developed immune systems and it’s literally crawling with nasties. Or demonstrating the best technique for hand washing.

It might sounds simple and perhaps even a little condescending but just consider for a moment that 6.6 million people in Britain do not wash their hands after going to the toilet and a massive 69% do not washing hands before eating. Under regular circumstances they may be fine but after a mega disaster those same people will be traumatised, possibly injured, maybe malnourished or dehydrated and they are much more vulnerable and likely to pick up an infection.

It was therefore very important to get the MSM kit loaded last week and on its way to Haiti.  I had calculated all the weights and volumes and had ordered a suitably sized plane but when you look at all the boxes sitting on the tarmac you get a real heart in the mouth moment and you think, it’s never all going to fit. I was feeling pretty confident when we’d loaded the two land cruisers then the digger and the plane was only half full but then it started to rapidly fill up and I felt a jolt of alarm.

After five hours of loading we still had fifteen boxes of latrines to go and the back doors on the Ilyushin 76 had only just managed to close. Not quitters, the loading team discovered a small pocket of available space at the front of the plane and they started hauling the final boxes through the passenger door. Like a torturous new years-esque countdown I silently mouthed five, four, three, two, suddenly the load master appeared at the door and shock his head, no more room. You’ve got to be kidding I thought, and it turns out he was, as he broke into a big beaming smile and gave me the thumbs up.

The icy rain that had our teeth chattering finally stopped just as the last latrine was hoisted up the ladder and inside. Happiness is the thunk of a fully laden aircraft door closing. I knew by the time I woke up the next day the aircraft would have arrived in Santo Domingo and the kit would be unloaded onto a truck to go across the border to Haiti. With soggy feet but a happy heart I scrawled a large tick on the to-do list and headed home.

Follow updates from Sharon Reader who is currently in Haiti with the MSM on the British Red Cross international delegate blog.

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Tags: disaster, disaster response, disease, earthquake, Emergencies, emergency response, emergency response unit, ERU, Haiti, hygiene promotion, International, latrines, logistics, MSM, red cross, sanitation

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This entry was posted on Sunday, January 24th, 2010 at 11:00 am and is filed under Emergencies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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