ARTICLE - CANADIAN SOURCE FOR CLEAN WATER

A CANADIAN SOURCE FOR CLEAN WATER IN HAITI
(Toronto Star) - By Emily Mathieu

It is a simple solution that could save lives, provide clean water and create jobs for the people of Haiti.

Two buckets, rigged with a cluster of filters and produced in Richmond Hill, can provide clean water for a family in a disaster zone for one year.

“They are effectively a couple of buckets. You mount (the filters) in the top bucket and (water) drains into the bottom,” said Scott Macdonald, president and co-owner of Envirogard Products Ltd., on Major MacKenzie Dr. E.

The two bucket system is one of several “very simplistic products that can be used in emergency or rudimentary situations to provide clean drinking water,” by filtering out dangerous pathogens, said Macdonald.

Sold under the brand name Rainfresh, the systems have been used in New Orleans post-Katrina, the Sudan and Pakistan. Water is poured into the 20 litre top bucket and filters to a sealed bottom bucket at a rate of about three litres an hour.

This year emergency relief organization GlobalMedic is using them to combat a cholera outbreak in Haiti. For citizens of the earthquake-ravaged and politically destabilized country, access to clean water is literally a matter of life or death.

Envirogard was incorporated in 1970. Its residential and commercial filtration systems are sold wholesale and to hardware companies including Canadian Tire and Lowes.

The systems used in Haiti are not a retail product. The company makes the filters; the bucket components are manufactured by others.

Macdonald, who also supplies systems to UNICEF, sought out GlobalMedic because they wanted to work with a Canadian organization providing immediate support during a disaster.

The completed products are not donated, but heavily discounted. “As low a markup as we can stomach,” said Macdonald.

Macdonald said the system can clean water from lakes, rivers, wells, and ponds as long as it is not heavily contaminated with human or chemical waste. A unit can provide clean water for a family for about a year before the filters need changing.

Rahul Singh, a Toronto paramedic and founder of GlobalMedic, said 800 systems have been shipped, with about 500 installed. About 1,000 are en route. Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ARDA) Haiti has pledged to pay for an additional 500 if they assemble the systems locally. They also plan to set up at least 100 in local schools.

GlobalMedic shares the $70 cost per unit, including shipping, with United Methodist Committee on Relief and Muslim Aid.

The final shipment for the first round of the project will be sent on Jan 7 and will be solely comprised of filters, enough to make 1,000 full systems. Shipping only filters cuts the cost of purchase and transportation dramatically.

Because the filters can be installed into food-grade plastic buckets, Singh hopes they can buy the containers in Haiti and train a local team to assemble and maintain the systems.

“By redirecting some of the funds into the Haitian economy we can create some jobs and help stabilize faltering industries,” said Singh.

“At the end of the day if you can give someone a job you are halfway to winning the battle of Haiti. If the end product you make is not stupid T-shirts for tourists in Miami then you have done your job.”

GlobalMedic is accepting donations and has applied for $560,000 in funding from the Canadian International Development Agency to purchase supplies needed for 10,000 units and provide training to local residents to assemble and distribute them.

Weighing less than two kilograms, the systems are designed to travel. Singh said most of Haiti’s population is in temporary housing and the systems can move with them.