ARTICLE - CALGARY CHOLERA FIGHT

HAITI WATER MISSION TURNS TO CHOLERA FIGHT FOR CALGARY AID WORKER
(Calgary Herald) - By Valerie Fortney

Arriving back in Calgary Wednesday after three weeks out of the country, Olivier Mills is unfazed by the cold weather and snow.

"It's beautiful," says the 28-year-old as he looks out the window of his Sunnyside home in his newly adopted city.

"I came home, had a good hot meal and drank water from the tap."

Less than 24 hours earlier, Mills was in a much warmer part of the world, but one where a hot meal is a rarity, clean drinking water a luxury known to few and where many see themselves as the cursed of Mother Earth.

One can hardly blame the citizens of Haiti for feeling this way. Less than a year after an earthquake that killed nearly a quarter of a million people, and mere days after hurricane Tomas caused deadly flooding, the country is in another life-and-death battle.

This time it's cholera, an acute intestinal infection caused by ingestion of food or water contaminated with the bacterium Vibro cholerae.

Although the disease is preventable and treatable if caught in time, those who don't seek treatment often die of dehydration within 48 hours of showing symptoms.

More than 1,100 Haitians have died since the disease -- one previously unknown to the country -- first appeared in mid-October, with another 16,000 having been hospitalized.

But predictions from the likes of the Pan-American Health Organization, which is warning that the number of deaths could soon soar to 10,000, means that this could be just the start of yet another large-scale tragedy to hit the impoverished country.

While most wouldn't be itching to enter into the middle of such devastation, it's the kind of work Mills has been training for his whole life.

The British-educated South African has master's degrees in water management and engineering.

He works as an international technical adviser for the Centre for Affordable Water and Sanitation Technology, a Calgary non-profit organization that provides education, training and technical consulting in water and sanitation to organizations that serve the poor in developing countries.

"I sought out CAWST two years ago because I liked its sustainable model," says Mills, who relocated to Calgary in 2008 with his partner Emilie Saintmartin, a fellow international technical adviser for CAWST, after having worked for other aid organizations in countries such as Sudan and Congo.

On this latest of three trips to Haiti this year, Mills was planning to spend time working with a local women's organization to utilize such simple, effective household technologies as biosand filters. But his itinerary took a major detour when, right about the time he landed, the cholera outbreak hit.

Suddenly, he found himself being called on for emergency advice and help.

"In some ways it was chaotic because there were international non-governmental organizations that didn't know the technical aspects of handling cholera," he says, shaking his head.

"In other ways, it was calm, because so many people living there didn't know anything about cholera or, if they did, had a 'whatever' attitude to this latest crisis. They're not complacent, they've just seen too much."

In addition to helping other NGO's respond to the crisis with his expert advice, Mills provided the Haitian government with a copy of CAWST's guidelines for preventing cholera, which was widely distributed throughout Haiti.

Mills, whose job as part of CAWST is to help prevent such outbreaks from gaining traction in the first place, found much of the experience frustrating.

"The government of Haiti is more interested in the upcoming election than the safety of its people," he says. "They are stating that the outbreak will be over on Dec. 12, which is completely nuts."

Still, he'll do whatever it takes to help save lives in Haiti, even if it means working with the government. He's been asked to put on a seminar on water treatment alternatives for government officials and major donors.

"The resilience of the people is amazing," he says. "They need help in finding long-term solutions; they're not looking for the quick fix."

Besides, he'll be plenty rested in another six to eight weeks, having been fed healthy meals and catching up on his sleep in a warm bed in an otherwise cold city.

"The people I work with there, they get no break," he says of the many he's come to know as friends in that beleaguered country.

"When I get back there, I'll be re-energized and they'll be doing the real work, to make things happen in the long run."