Haiti-One Year After the Earthquake

Jan. 8, 2011 - PRLog -- Haiti - One Year After the Earthquake

Chicago Water Filtration System Inventor Visits Haiti and Notes Progress.

Upon landing into the Port Au Prince airport in Haiti, “rusty tin roof buildings could be seen from above”, says George Page, inventor of the Pocketpure water filtration system by Portapure. His initial arrival to Haiti was spent in a Port Au Prince neighborhood called Delmas 31. While walking up a Delmas 31 street, Page admits he felt as though he was rock climbing. “Un-level roads, rocks, broken glass, and trash piles fill street after street in this inner-city neighborhood of Port Au Prince” Page recalls.

The inventor  and former water filtration management engineer traveled to Haiti during a Christmas donation campaign on behalf of his company, Portapure. While in Haiti, Page took a daily log to document his journey.


Day One
“Tent communities have popped up in streets, alleys, and even backyards. A large tent city is located on the same street as the airport in Port Au Prince. What is equally amazing is what has not been done”; many rubble laden buildings are throughout Port-Au Prince. Though one might expect to see caution tape around destroyed buildings, roped off areas didn’t exist. “Kids played in the rubble of decayed buildings as if they were playgrounds. I peered inside of a few of the buildings to see if I could see evidence of the nightmare that once existed. Thinking maybe I would see blood stains or body parts -- thankfully I didn’t”.

Day Two
Page visited a Cholera treatment center and the tent city camp “Traizalie”. He expresses that he found the cholera tent quite eerie. “I was told by my escort not to touch anything”, recalls Page. Temporary bunk beds were in plain view with holes cut in the center, as diarrhea is a direct and extreme effect of Cholera. “The Cholera treatment tent felt as if it were an army barrack”, says Page. Inside of tent camp Traizalie, he was able to peer inside a few of the dwellings. He was struck at how permanent the tent cities had become. “Many tents had portable stove units. A definite fire hazard as tents I saw were made of re-enforced tarp paper.” Each tent city had its own vending system. Tent city vendors selling gas to stranded motorists in vegetable containers or any container they could find for $10 a gallon. Merchants also sold chips and snacks at 3 times the rate they should.  Page noted the logos of USAID, Samaritans Purse, and even the Peoples Republic of China marking the tents scattered within this vehement city.

Day Three
In stark contrast, day three began with a visit up the mountainous terrain of Port-Au Prince into Black Mountain region; an upper-middle class part of the city with fewer rubble-ridden buildings, paved roads, and clean streets. This area of black mountain is also where most of the charity organization offices are located. Page then returned back down the mountain to Delmas 31 to visit a Cholera Treatment camp on the Carrerfour River, also known as “Cold River”. Though Page couldn’t gain access to the Cholera Treatment Camp, he did meet the treasurer of the Carrefour River Organization des Jeunes Pour, Joseph Lederne.

Through a translator, Lederne communicated the history of the river and told of the cases of cholera reported there. “It was a serene scene, with Haitian women washing laundry, and animals passing through the river, a region concentrated with cholera cases”, notes Page. He then decided to conduct an impromptu demonstration of the Pocketpure device. “I grabbed a cell phone camera, obtained a sample from the Carrefour River and began the demonstration” Page exclaims. He disassembled the device, obtained a 1 liter sample, added the water purification tablet, and initiated mixing of the river/stream water. After approx 3 minutes of mixing, and 7 minutes of settling, the filter/tube mechanism was inserted to drink the filtered liquid. “I got Mr Lederne to drink from Pocketpure as well. Everyone was surprised to see me drink from the river-as it was a source of several cholera cases”, exclaims Page.

For photos visit www.portapure.com, Haiti relief tab.
For the cell phone video demonstration, visit Pocketpure Youtube channel.

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Manufacturer of portable water purification devices for domestic and global use. Reasearcher, developer, and manufacturer of Pocketpure portable water purifier