Working in partnership with Mercy Corps, ITT is delivering clean water to natural disaster sites – like those in Honduras and Nepal – with much more speed.
The ink on the contract wasn't dry, but the wells in Honduras and Nepal were. There was no time to waste.
On October 21, 2008, ITT formalized a strategic partnership with Mercy Corps to bring safe water and sanitation to survivors of natural disasters. Two days later, the two organizations were teaming up to help the people of Honduras and Nepal, where steady, torrential rains and flooding had destroyed hundreds of wells and left hundreds of thousands of people in dire straights without clean drinking water – and many without shelter.
"Natural disasters hit with a sudden fury and the ITT-Mercy Corps partnership can respond with the needed urgency," says Bjorn von Euler, director of corporate philanthropy for ITT.
Quick decisions and actions
ITT has provided water relief to other natural disaster sites in the past – including the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, the 2007 flooding in Tabasco, Mexico, and the 2008 China earthquake and Myanmar typhoon – but by working together with Mercy Corps, ITT can now respond faster and make a more meaningful impact in disaster zones.
In Honduras, ITT provided money and two portable water treatment systems – and deployed training personnel – to two devastated towns. In Nepal, the company contributed $50,000 to enable Mercy Corps personnel to clean – or redrill – 50 water wells in flood-impacted areas.
The ITT aid comes from a three-year, $1 million commitment to Mercy Corps that is part of the ITT Watermark corporate philanthropy program. The ITT Watermark program also includes a three-year, $3 million program with Water For People focused on bringing safe water, sanitation and hygiene education to at least 300 schools in Latin America, India and China.
The Emergency Response Committee that determines where ITT can best make life-saving clean water contributions will eventually include a team of ITT volunteers trained and ready to travel to the trouble spots at a moment's notice.
First responders
The ITT responders in Honduras included two engineers from ITT's Fluid Technology group: Darren Reed flew in from the U.K. to provide training on the two portable water treatment systems donated by ITT, and Fernando Meneses from Lima, Peru, who participated earlier this year in Water Corps training camp, helped with training and translations.
They were there for a week, and by early November fresh, welcome water was flowing to 50,000 people in the towns of La Libertad and Meambar.
"When we arrived, the purification plant had been destroyed and people were taking water from a dirty, muddy stream to get through their days," says Meneses. "It was a desperate and unsafe situation. We were able to provide these wonderful people with clean, safe water until they got their water treatment systems back up and running, and I will never forget the small children with big smiles on their faces as they filled their glasses and took a drink."
When his week on the front lines was finished, Darren Reed wrote a summary report for his ITT supervisors that concluded with a personal note: "Today is ‘Children in Need' day in England, and we can scratch the children of La Libertad and Meambar off the list of those in need of safe drinking water."
