Emergency Water Equipment En Route to Liberia

Oxfam-America
Wednesday, 13 August 2003

International agency Oxfam will fly a plane with $144,000 US worth of desperately-needed emergency aid supplies from London to Liberia at 9pm GMT, to arrive in the capital Monrovia on Wednesday morning.

The plane will be loaded with equipment to help Oxfam's team in Monrovia rapidly scale up their emergency work, supplying clean water and sanitation to thousands of displaced people in and around Monrovia. The equipment will include water tanks, pumps, pipes and taps, blankets, and mosquito nets.

"The arrival of the plane is very timely, it will help us addressing some of the critical needs both in Monrovia and areas outside the capital such as Salala where people are in desperate need of clean water," said Oxfam's Sam Nagbe. "We visited Salala on the weekend, where people were reporting the deaths of two to three people daily because of diarrhea and other water borne diseases."

Around 20,000-25,000 people displaced by fighting in the north of the country have been living in a camp in Salala, 90 minutes drive northeast of Monrovia, since May. Because of the fighting in and around Monrovia over the last two months, gaining humanitarian access to these people has been very difficult and they are in critical need of food and clean water. As of the weekend people in the camp had not received any food distributions, and were surviving on a diet of leaves and roots.

"The equipment will increase our ability to rehabilitate wells, truck water and rehabilitate water pumps in Monrovia that may have been damaged," said Nagbe. "We also have plans to increase water access in the camp in Salala by putting into place a more permanent water source and increasing the number of latrines and bath houses to match the population of the camp."

Throughout the recent conflict in Liberia's capital Monrovia, Oxfam's 25 Liberian staff have been working as much as possible to bring clean water to some of the estimated 250,000 people who have been displaced by the fighting. Oxfam's work has included:

• Trucking and pumping water to homeless families seeking refuge in the city's Samuel K. Doe sports' stadium and in schools and public buildings



• Building emergency toilets in the stadium, schools and public buildings to try to stop the spread of disease



• Distributing buckets for water and soap to homeless families



• Working with local hygiene promoters to improve conditions and limit the spread of diseases

For more information, or to contact Oxfam-America, see their website at: www.oxfamamerica.org