Haiti: Update on water distribution efforts (Mon pm Haiti time)
Hello, Louis Belanger, spokesperson of Oxfam, reporting from Port-au-Prince in Haiti. Today the team of Oxfam continued its assessment in terms of looking for different locations for its water distribution. The team went to several locations just to see place where we can distribute water, where we can build latrines etc. So they went to a few neighbourhoods that were most affected. Unfortunately today Oxfam had to halt its water distributions because of the lack of fuel in Port-au-Prince and the difficulty to get it. Now, we hope to resume as soon as possible, hopefully tomorrow, on Tuesday (19th), but the fuel issue is a real concern, not only for transport because we need to transport our trucks that are full of water to water tanks that are ready to be used. But not only for that, but also for communications because everything is working on generators right now. As you know, communications were very problematic in the first three days, and it's really important that this fuel issue be tackled right away. Now, we've heard that there's a good lifeline between Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic and Haiti in terms of trucking in fuel. That's good news. We hope it continues and it stays that way, it cannot become a problem because you know we've got quite a bit on our hands already. Now, as I said, communication, cellphones, internet, is still pretty shaky, and that's slowing us down quite a bit - it's difficult to quickly call a colleague or an ally, whether it's an Oxfam colleague or someone from the Red Cross or ActionAid, or the UN, communication is still very difficult and people still have problems to reach each other. And that's still an issue. And we hope it resolves itself. So as I said, Oxfam, you know, we didn't sit on our laurels today, we went out there, assessed quite a few locations, and hopefully we can resume water distributions tomorrow, or even sooner. So there are reports that there have been some riots, but overall I haven't seen it. Oxfam... (cuts out)our team has been busy looking for(?) good locations so we can provide that water and distribute the water in the most orderly fashion. We don't want to have riots or chaotic scenes, we want to be just as efficient as possible, so that's what we're planning to do. It's still a massive challenge, it's still slow, we understand that, and as I said previously, we share the frustration. We're working hard to tackle all of the problems one by one and to ensure the population of Port-au-Prince and the outskirts get relief as quickly as possible. The airport is still an issue, we heard that aid is still laying at the airport and that the delivery is still being slow. I think this is being tackled. The shipment and the cargo from Oxfam that has arrived in Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic will probably be shipped all the way here by land, just because that will be the most efficient way to ship all the humanitarian equipment all the way to Port-au-Prince.
Hello, Louis Belanger, spokesperson of Oxfam, reporting from Port-au-Prince in Haiti. Today the team of Oxfam continued its assessment in terms of looking for different locations for its water distribution. The team went to several locations just to see place where we can distribute water, where we can build latrines etc. So they went to a few neighbourhoods that were most affected. Unfortunately today Oxfam had to halt its water distributions because of the lack of fuel in Port-au-Prince and the difficulty to get it. Now, we hope to resume as soon as possible, hopefully tomorrow, on Tuesday (19th), but the fuel issue is a real concern, not only for transport because we need to transport our trucks that are full of water to water tanks that are ready to be used. But not only for that, but also for communications because everything is working on generators right now. As you know, communications were very problematic in the first three days, and it's really important that this fuel issue be tackled right away. Now, we've heard that there's a good lifeline between Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic and Haiti in terms of trucking in fuel. That's good news. We hope it continues and it stays that way, it cannot become a problem because you know we've got quite a bit on our hands already. Now, as I said, communication, cellphones, internet, is still pretty shaky, and that's slowing us down quite a bit - it's difficult to quickly call a colleague or an ally, whether it's an Oxfam colleague or someone from the Red Cross or ActionAid, or the UN, communication is still very difficult and people still have problems to reach each other. And that's still an issue. And we hope it resolves itself. So as I said, Oxfam, you know, we didn't sit on our laurels today, we went out there, assessed quite a few locations, and hopefully we can resume water distributions tomorrow, or even sooner. So there are reports that there have been some riots, but overall I haven't seen it. Oxfam... (cuts out)our team has been busy looking for(?) good locations so we can provide that water and distribute the water in the most orderly fashion. We don't want to have riots or chaotic scenes, we want to be just as efficient as possible, so that's what we're planning to do. It's still a massive challenge, it's still slow, we understand that, and as I said previously, we share the frustration. We're working hard to tackle all of the problems one by one and to ensure the population of Port-au-Prince and the outskirts get relief as quickly as possible. The airport is still an issue, we heard that aid is still laying at the airport and that the delivery is still being slow. I think this is being tackled. The shipment and the cargo from Oxfam that has arrived in Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic will probably be shipped all the way here by land, just because that will be the most efficient way to ship all the humanitarian equipment all the way to Port-au-Prince.
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