sanitation - Haiti Observer Blog

Some people would say that the solution to all our problems is in our head. Michael Wahl who is a 40-year-old missions pastor while in Haiti, witnessed the way a woman had to deal with her child's feces and thought there has to be a better way. Michael Wahl took it on his own to find a solution and came up with Reusable diapers help babies in Haiti .

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Michael Wahl is a 40-year-old mission's pastor who has dedicated his life for ensuring healthy and sanitary living of the people in the developing nations. He has helped to bring filtered water in some of the poorest part of Haiti where there was no water or bathrooms. When he witnessed the unhygienic disposal of infants' fecal matter, he came up with an idea of reusable diaper and created 'DriButts Reusable Diaper' with his wife Starla E Wahl to help the children in the underdeveloped villages stay healthy. During his visit in last September, Michael Wahl, the founder of DriButts, has distributed 720 reusable diapers to 360 families in the villages in Leogane. Two diaper for each family-- enough to last an infant for two years. This would prevent fecal matter contamination of food and water and uncontrolled spread of diseases like dysentery, typhus fever, cholera, and typhoid.

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The 2010 earthquake that demolished Haiti's infrastructure robbed the poorest Haitians of what little they had, homes that were nothing more than hovels. Thrown into the streets of Port-au-Prince with no access to toilets, sanitation virtually did not exist. Having no clean potable water added to the misery.

Nine months following the January earthquake, in October 2010, a cholera epidemic took hold of Port-au-Prince, largely affecting those living in tent cities. These cities are still filled today with earthquake survivors, and cholera cases have increased noticeably since early 2012.

The United States Department of State has kept a travel advisory in place since the earthquake, cautioning American citizens to stay away from Haiti. With the exception of necessary business travel or humanitarian work, Americans are advised not to visit Haiti.
But others claim the majority of travelers to Haiti are not likely to contract cholera. However, they recommend a cholera prevention kit as a precautionary measure:

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Haiti's 2010 earthquake, which shook the country to its foundations, especially Port-au-Prince, displaced tens of thousands of Haitians. They were reduced to living in the streets, without adequate sanitation. Nine months later in October of 2010, a cholera epidemic began, and has continued afflicting the poorest segment of Haitians, many of whom remain living in tent cities.

The Ministry of Public Sanitation and the Population has recorded 581,952 cases of cholera as of July 2012, with a 7,455 death tally since October 2010. A noticeable rise in cholera cases have been reported since early 2012 in Centre, Nord, and Port-au-Prince. Port-au-Prince neighborhoods reporting cases of cholera include: Carrefour, Cité Soleil, Delmas, Kenscoff, Petionville, and Tabarre.

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