By January 2011 in Haiti, the cholera outbreak that began in October 2010 had infected more than 171,000 people and killed over 3,600. Although the disease is preventable with clean water and basic hygiene, Haiti lacks adequate safe water and sanitation facilities; even before the quake, the country’s access to sanitation was among the worst in the world. UNICEF has been working with other aid agencies to find durable solutions to supplying clean water to some of the 1 million people that remain displaced.
Preventing cholera.
A girl carries a bucket of water to her tent in a camp near the slum of Cité de Dieu, in Port-au-Prince, the capital. Clean, safe water remains the best way of preventing the spread of cholera.
© UNICEF/NYHQ2011-0013/Marco Dormino
Clean water. Fabienne Mira, 9, collects water from a bladder in a camp near the slum of Cité de Dieu, in Port-au-Prince, the capital. Fabienne’s parents cannot afford to send her to school, but they have taught her about cholera prevention. “You have to put Aquatabs [chlorine tablets] in the water to kill the bacteria,” she said.
© UNICEF/NYHQ2011-0007/Marco Dormino
Clean water. Facienne Mira carries a bucket filled with water to her tent in a camp near the slum of Cité de Dieu, in Port-au-Prince, the capital.
© UNICEF/NYHQ2011-0008/Marco Dormino
Safe water. A Direction Nationale de l'Eau Potable et de l'Assainissement (DINEPA) agent tests the chlorine level of the water distributed in a camp near the slum of Cité de Dieu, in Port-au-Prince, the capital. UNICEF is working with DINEPA, the government’s water and sanitation authority, to establish a testing process to ensure that all water supplied to communities is safe.
© UNICEF/NYHQ2011-0009/Marco Dormino
Safe water. DINEPA agents test the chlorination level in the water distributed in a camp next to the slum of Cité de Dieu in Port-au-Prince, the capital.
© UNICEF/NYHQ2011-0010/Marco Dormino
Safe water. DINEPA agents test the chlorine level of the water distributed in a camp near the slum of Cité de Dieu, in Port-au-Prince, the capital.
© UNICEF/NYHQ2011-0011/Marco Dormino
Clean water. A child collects water from a bladder in a camp near the slum of Cité de Dieu, in Port-au-Prince, the capital.
© UNICEF/NYHQ2011-0012/Marco Dormino
Safe water. A woman and her daughter carry buckets of water in a camp near slum of Cité de Dieu, in Port-au-Prince, the capital.
© UNICEF/NYHQ2011-0014/Marco Dormino
Treating cholera. A health worker feeds bottled water to a child being treated for cholera, in a health centre in the impoverished Wharf Jérémie neighbourhood of Port-au-Prince, the capital.
© UNICEF/NYHQ2010-2464/Dormino
