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Daily update. Wednesday 27 January 2010

Text: Daily update. Wednesday 27 January 2010

from Peter Ravenscroft, 27.01.10

Updates:

3) I have just emailed Radio Signal FM Haiti, which is on the air, and relaying and taking messages, to ask them to find Gilbert, or if that is not possible, to ask on air if someone can go to the Momance River south of Carrefour 7.5 km, and measure the water flow. Also, the flow in the Frorse River. I do not understand French, so if anyone can listen and take a few notes, particularly about water, that would be a huge help. Go here

http://www.signalfmhaiti.com/nous-ecrire

2)  We are going for three (up from two)  6-inch pipelines, to get the 150 metre lift over the ridge between the Momance River and  the Frorse River. With much bigger diesel or gasoline pumps.  Sykes XH 150 pumps. One running and one on standby If the water flow etc, checks out on the recce expedition. These pumps  cost in the region of $250,000 each. That one pump will lift the water ove the ridge between the Momance and Frosre rivers. The XH stands of Extra Head and the 150 for vertical metres it can comfortably pump up. Convenient fo us, as the lift over the ridge is 150 metres, by coincidence. That advice from Rob Walls, irrigation engineer, who is not selling any. He says they are idiot-proof, as thy shut down if they run dry, and are what the hire industry here uses aas standard big high-head pumps. See the update on the Carrefour project planning, here, or more.

1) UNICEF is looking at it know, their top field folk, at all relevant levels Cross fingers. John Gillen is doing a formal proposal, with an aid industry proposal expert, for others. And, we have a Kiwi water engineer in the village here, Samford, on side and assisting in design. Translation is the one thing ticking along beautifully, ta folks.

We do not know when we will get on the ground. We still do not have backing. I have contacted USAID and the World Food Program, to ask if they want this water project, but one dos not get replies, just run-arounds from people down the line.

I am sorry there are delays, but meanwhile we should try be Haiti's water information site. If the airdrop water stops or reduces, folk there may have real trouble, so we need to locate surface and shallow water asap. And let them know where it is.

So, the translations an the mapping are crucial. And, there is a vast amount we can do, till we get backing and can go over.

This is all new for everyone. There are no experts on the planet, just yet.


I will change this as better info comes in.

I honestly don't know how this is going to pan out.

If
water was totally desperate, we would be seeing people dying of thirst. it may be happening, but the videoa are not showing masses of people falling over . Someone with medical expertise keep an eye on that? New useful disaster skill, using U Tube?.

If folk do not get food, they cannot get to walk long distances to water. If most of Port au Prince is evacuated, we need to know where they are going, on the satellite data and via news reports. And which camps need pipeline water and where it can be got. So just listening to and reading all reports is a job for several people, who should co-ordinate and do a daily assessment, for translation and posting. .

We need to push the idea of drilling for groundwater, near the new camps, and to find the geology data. if the bores go down a bit away from the camps, the groundwater will be clean of bacteria, at least for a while.

We very badly need people to recruit people to do online work. Someone needs to contact all the volunteers on the Haiti Volunteer Network, explain we are a bit stuck, and ask folk to work online.

We have the huge advantage of each having food and water ourselves and some kind of Internet connection each. Unless yours fails.

We do need folk to use the comments section below the daily board, as that keeps everyone informed. Emails need individual attention, and it is difficult to read them all fast enough and then pas the info on to who needs to get it. The Oz team so far is one person.

There is a possibility of ongoing food shortages and mass
starvation, as the UN was stretched already for food stocks, and is
asking armies everywhere to send food ration packs, an odd one.

We could be pushing for people to be supplied seed to grow first sprouts and then vegetables, to lighten the pressure on aid food. Sprouts come up in a few days and are far more nutritious than the original seed.

One need now is for someone to work on the net, telling the aid agencies where we think we can get water, and how.

Also for someone to try, via the ham networks, find what radio stations are being heard in Haiti, in Creole and French and English. I suspect fewer and fewer radios are working as batteries go flat and cannot be recharged. There is no mains power, so mains radios are out. 

I will stick this email on the daily board

One good team of two on the ground, with a military escort and access to helicopters, could do magic. If we can get the US military or the UN to identify surface water volumes, and froward them for posting, we will be doing well. Since we can get that info into Creole and French now

PS Six members now, welcome Romeo. If you can, everyone, edit your profile on Pool, to stick up some info about who you are and what you do. That way, we all know who to contact for what. New people, please use your real first and surnames, unless you need do do different. We are not the CIA or MI5, and aliases drive folk nuts. They are the curse of the Internet. Mutter, mutter.

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