Water Project for Haiti

by Kyle Adam

A typical installation inside a Haitian home with children eager to try the water and see how the BSF works

Water Project for Haiti is an Okanagan Valley organization, based in Vernon BC, with the objective of proving water management solutions to the people of Haiti from the SOURCE to the GLASS. Officially founded in 2011, this non-profit organization is made up of board members that have not only been involved with projects of this nature before, but have spent time in Haiti. They have gotten to know the culture and the people that make the country so great. With an onsite partnership at the compound of Project Help-Haiti in Borel, Haiti, we are set up and in full production. But even with all of this beauty, the people of Haiti face a great disadvantage that most of us take for granted; their ability to obtain clean, drinkable water. Before, and certainly after the wake of the earthquake that struck Haiti in 2010, many found themselves in a constant battle to find clean, potable water for their families. In some parts of Haiti, people still wake up every day with constant worry about whether the water they consume will make their children sick. Cholera, as well as many other diseases, still haunt the water supply more than ever. Thousands die every year due to this ongoing problem, and unless action is taken it will continue. The reasons for the spread of disease are a combination of the little infrastructure they had to start with, the lack of outside help continuing after the devastation, the treatment of local water supplies, and poor sanitary conditions that keep the cycle of disease only a glass away. Here at Water Project for Haiti we know it all starts at the household level. We can provide them with the tools they need to combat this threat. The common situation for the majority of Haiti’s populous is this; the latrines and toilets most Haitian homes can support are holes dug in the ground about 5-8’. These have walls built around them, and when they reach their capacity they are filled in, and a new latrine is build right next to the original. The problem here is, located in most cases 10-30’ away, is the 10’ well that the Haitian people get their drinking water from. In addition to this issue is the fact that ¾ of Haiti sits only 600 feet (183 m) above sea-level and many of its communities are in areas with very high water tables. Simply put, this is giving anything that sits in the ground the ability to travel quite easily, and in most cases it gives the diseases a free ride to enter the source of the well. This isn’t just a problem in Haiti; it happens all over the world, but luckily there is a very simple, affordable and proactive solution, Bio-Sand Filters (BSF). .

In our valley, water is a focal point, with Skaha, Okanagan, Kalamalka and Shuswap lakes giving visual promise of abundant fresh water. But we cannot take it for granted, even here.

Despite the planet’s vast oceans, only about 3.5 percent is fresh water and two-thirds of that is locked into what are now the melting glaciers and polar ice caps. We have no substitute for this resource, and implementing solutions to this continually challenges our ecological intelligence.
Water Project for Haiti has teamed up with The Centre for Affordable Water and Sanitation Technology (CAWST) out of Calgary to start a project that will provide every family with clean drinking water. This will also create jobs locally, requiring resources found in Haiti to assemble the filters. Water Project tries to empower Haitians with skills that they can spread throughout Haiti’s work force. We create jobs by using all raw material from Haiti, such as the sand and rock, we contract out lids and molds from locals and hire and train Haitians to run the day to day operations. We want to try and spend every dollar donated to our project to keep the Haitian economy stimulated.

below, Blosand Filter

The biosand filter is a very simple design, and simple is what makes this project work. Its purpose is this: take contaminated well, river or canal water and filter out diseases. As illustrated in the photo, the filter is made of a concrete casing and filled with different sizes of sand and stone. Daily water is poured through the top of the filter, and the diffuser plate catches large debris. Now the magic starts. The design is to use pathogens that already sit in the first 5-6cm of the filter’s sand to eat the new pathogens that have just been poured in. Simply by controlling the speed of the flow of water, and with precise quantities of natural material (sand and stone) that make up the filter, we can eliminate most all of the diseases that currently cause sickness in Haiti. It is that easy. As well, with minimal maintenance the filters can last more than 10 years.

Three Bio-Sand Filters ready for installation (below)

As well as provide biosand filters, Water Project for Haiti has got its feet wet with receiving funding to build, in partnership with Project Help Haiti, its second composting and community toilet in Borel, Haiti. The goal of projects like these are to educate Haitians on why they are getting sick, and provide them with better sanitary conditions. The concept behind this project is to build a location where the community can go that is safe, clean and is properly designed to store human waste, while preventing it from leaching back into the water source. From there Haitians are employed to manage both the latrine and composting site where the humanure is brought and made into compost. This compost is then in turn given to the famers to grow their crops, proving a full turnkey solution. It creates jobs and allows everyone to see all the benefits of having a program like this. This project will be comprised of one community toilet located at the central church in Borel, with a composting facility design to be able to handle three toilets. The goal over the coming year is to raise enough money to build two more toilets at each end of the community and have the waste brought to the central composting site, where it can all be managed by Project Water and Project Help Haiti.

Okanaganite, Leah Riley and children in Haiti (below)

This isn’t a Band-Aid solution; the board members were there before the earthquake and will continue to be there well after the rebuilding. This project is focused on the long term, but can provide immediate results. However, in order for Water Project for Haiti to survive and continue its work, we rely 100% on private donations. With a donation of $50 dollars you can provide 10 Haitians with clean, drinkable water for 10 years.

The Water Project for Haiti work site in Borel, Haiti (below)



We are a new organization and depend on the support of the citizens of British Columbia to keep this goal moving forward. If you want to find out any more information, want to get involved with fundraising or wish to be so kind as to bless the Haitians with a donation,
please email info@waterprojectforhaiti.com or visit the website:
www.waterprojectforhaiti.com
Every family has the right to clean water and we can do this with your help, one filter at a time.

Peaceful act of civil disobedience planned for October to defend Canada's west coast from tar sands pipelines and tankers

This press release from Greenpeace, arrived on my desk this morning ...

Over 80 influential leaders from the business, First Nations, environmental, labour, academic, medical and artistic communities across Canada today announced an upcoming mass sit-in in front of the provincial legislature in Victoria, British Columbia on October 22. The sit-in will oppose tar sands pipelines and tankers and the threats they would pose to the west coast.

"There are moments in history when it's clear that our elected leaders are failing us and it is necessary to take a stand,” said prominent author and environmentalist Tzeporah Berman. “Today we are stating our intention to defend our coast and calling on others to join us. The risk of oil spills and irreversible harm to our tourism and fishing industries from these pipelines and tankers is just too great.”

 Over 80 community, union, business and First Nation leaders have endorsed the October 22 sit-in, including Stephen Lewis, David Suzuki, Maude Barlow, Naomi Klein, Tom Goldtooth, David Coles, Vandana Shiva, Bill McKibben, John O’Connor, and Tony Clarke.  You can view the full list at http://defendourcoast.ca/about-us/

 The October sit-in builds on the success of protests against tar sands expansion and pipelines that have taken place in the U.S. and Canada in recent months.  The August 2011 sit-ins in Washington D.C. that helped delay approval of the Keystone XL pipeline and the September 26, 2011 sit-in in Ottawa that helped put Canadian tar sands pipeline proposals in the national spotlight.

“We’re meeting in Victoria to show that you can’t gut Canada’s environmental legislation and try to put a price tag on the B.C. coast without a public response,” said Maude Barlow, Chair person for the Council of Canadians. “Canada’s iconic coast is far too valuable to risk on tar sands pipelines and tankers and we pledge to defend it.”

“This October, we pledge to defend our coast and the mountains, rivers, forests, wildlife and First Nations communities of B.C. against tar sands pipelines and tankers,” said Susan Spratt, Western Regional Director of the CAW. “We want long-term green jobs that will take us beyond fossil fuels, not short-term high risk pipelines.” 

Organizers expect people from across Canada to join British Columbians in calling on elected officials to stand up for Canada’s west coast and the rights of First Nation peoples.

 “We hope people from all walks of life and from across the country join us in Victoria and defend the natural beauty and cultural richness of the B.C. coastline,” said Chief Jackie Thomas, Saik'uz First Nation.  “We will be there to show the widespread opposition to tar sands pipelines and tanker proposals and to show the strength of the support for First Nations people’s rights to land and title and the internationally protected right to free, prior and informed consent on any development impacting our traditional territories.”

People can sign up online at www.defendourcoast.ca to participate and become a coastal defender.

We were feeling a little radical this issue.

See the whole issue online at www.northof50.com

“The Dumb Waiter” at The Hub in Vernon on September 27, 28 and 29 at 8 p.m.

“The Dumb Waiter”       Press Release Sept. 2012        Entertainment

It’s Back.

The Tragically Comic Players will present Harold Pinter’s sensational comedy of menace “The Dumb Waiter” at The Hub in Vernon on September 27, 28 and 29 at 8 p.m.  This wonderfully off-beat classic is perfect for this exciting new venue.  Tickets are $10 at the door or in advance from members of The Tragically Comic Players or at The Bean Scene across from The Hub.

 

Nobel Prize winner Harold Pinter takes us into the minds of two hit men waiting for their next assignment.  Phillip Wagner, Artistic Director of The Tragically Comic Players joins with Ted Fox, actor/musician/songwriter, for this special performance.  They love it.

Rod MacDonald is Technical Director, and Annika Lauriston is stage manager.  A minimal, negative-space set design is by Wagner.  Sound effects play the part of the dumb-waiter.

When awarding the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2005, the highest honour available to any writer in the world, Horace Engdahl, Chairman of the Swedish academy, said that Pinter was an artist “who in his plays uncovers the precipice under everyday prattle and forces entry into oppression’s closed rooms.”

 Pinter himself wrote, “There are no hard distinctions between what is real and what is unreal, nor between what is true and what is false.  A thing is not necessarily either true or false; it can be both true and false.  I believe that these assertions still make sense and do still apply to the exploration of reality through art.  So as a writer I stand by them but as a citizen I cannot.  As a citizen I must ask:  What is true?  What is false?”

The two characters in “The Dumb Waiter” are hit men who are ostensibly not too bright, but they deal with the absurd mystery that presents itself to test them in their “waiting room” with an arduous struggle of profound intensity.  The resulting comedy is subtle and menacing.

For more information regarding this highly entertaining masterfully written play or for reservations, please call 1-250-547-6045.  Thank you.

 

 

The University of British Columbia is serving more B.C. students on its campuses than ever before, with continued growth at its Okanagan campus.

UBC’s Vancouver campus will welcome 6,324 new first-year students, of which nearly 3,800 are from B.C. high schools, up four per cent. The incoming class is the first to benefit from a new-to-Canada personalized enrolment services model, dubbed the “Names not Numbers” project. Each incoming student is assigned to a single “enrolment services professional,” who will help guide them through registration, student financial support and more, throughout their entire university career.

“UBC’s strong reputation continues to attract large numbers of students from B.C. and around the world,” said James Ridge, Associate Vice-President and Registrar. “This year we have made some major enrolment innovations. Early responses are very positive. Our peer institutions have expressed a strong interest in how these changes improve student experience.”

Overall enrolment on the Vancouver campus is projected to be 48,768 (including 38,388 undergraduates and 10,380 graduate students), remaining at the same level as last year.

UBC’s Okanagan campus welcomes 1,933 new first-year students to its campus, including 1,249 students from B.C. high schools. Overall enrolment has grown to 8,307 (including 7,652 undergraduates and 655 graduates), up from 7,932 last year.

The total number of new international first-year students at the Vancouver campus is 1,271, and at the Okanagan campus is 187.

UBC has also expanded its admissions process to include not only grades, but also personal experiences, to better select students who will engage in all aspects of university life. Broad-based admissions (BBA) was part of enrolment for all incoming Vancouver first-year undergraduate students this year. This is being implemented for incoming Okanagan campus students next year. UBC is the first large public university in Canada to implement such programs.