Diarrhea Outbeak Has Claimed at Least 50 Lives in the Past 72 hours

News agencies are reporting that an outbreak of diarrhea has claimed at least 50 lives in the past 72 hours in central Haiti along the Artibonite river. Diarrhea, which is a preventable and treatable disease, is inexcusably a major cause of death in developing countries. In Haiti, where the majority of people do not have access to a toilet and those toiletsthat do exist almost always discharge directly into either the street, open water, or underground pits, 12% of children die before age 5 and waterborne illness is the second most prevalent cause, responsible for 16.5% of these deaths.
Please help SOIL respond to the continuing sanitation crisis in Haiti by supporting our efforts to develop low-cost, sustainable and environmenally sound sanitaiton solutions. We won’t stop working until there is 100% sanitation coverage in Haiti and we don’t have to hear another news story like this again.