From All Corners, a Rush to Get Clean Drinking Water to Survivors in Stricken Areas

Tanker trucks, bottled water, pumps, disinfecting kits and clean jugs are being rushed to regions struck by the tsunami in hopes of providing what survivors most urgently need: safe drinking water.

A lot of homegrown solutions are happening. Private donors of all kinds are driving in with bottled water, especially in Sri Lanka and India.

An expert in water sanitation from the World Health Organization has arrived in the Maldives to help determine the best way to restore safe water supplies, said Dr. Pino Annunziata, a member of the organization's emergency response team. He said that rainfall there would help to flush the salt out of the wells, but added that rain could also create stagnant pools of fresh water where mosquitoes could breed and spread malaria, which is already prevalent in many of the devastated areas.

Dr. David Nabarro, the director of crisis operations for the World Health Organization, said that a shipment of bottled water was being flown to the Maldives from Britain. He said the organization had been offered the use of a commercial plane heading from Manchester to Mali and had elected to fill the plane with water.

Source: The New York Times