Aid for Haiti: Updated Resources for Engineers

Aid organizations, many with engineering components, are providing sites and online resources to help organize and inform relief work in Haiti. This is an updated compilation of some of those that have come to our attention.

Organizing engineers for reconstruction

The American Society of Civil Engineers has issued a call for donations and volunteer engineers to rebuild in Haiti. They posted a Disaster Assistance Volunteer Directory to match your skills with the work underway. They urgently need structural engineers or any engineer who speaks French or Creole and ask volunteers to specify such skills when enrolling.

The Humanitarian Engineers Registry and Engineers Without Borders International Database.
This site connects volunteer engineers and members of engineering and humanitarian organizations with aid workers, public officials, and communities seeking assistance. It is also as a database for members of EWB-International.

Haiti 2010 Sahana Disaster Response Portal
This is a resource for coordinating aid efforts in the aftermath of the disaster. There is a searchable database of organizations responding to the disaster, the sectors where they are providing services, their projects and their contact details. Users can update it with information about their own organizations.

There is also a report of all projects in which organizations are engaged and situation map showing what is happening in Haiti right now. Sahana pulls maps and events from various sources and shows current events on up-to-date, high-resolution satellite images. Maps can be downloaded as feeds in many formats for use in Google Earth or on a GPS device.

UN ReliefWeb provides information for humanitarian relief workers in Haiti.

Guidelines for relief work

The Mortenson Center in Engineering for Developing Communities, at the University of Colorado, Boulder, compiled a list of resources to address emergencies in developing countries. It includes instructions for handling emergency water supplies, sanitation and environmental health; emergency shelter and disaster recovery.

Water and Sanitation

Manual: Point of Use Water Treatment in Emergency Response, Lantagne, D and Clasen T (2009).

WHO Technical Notes for Emergencies

1. Cleaning and disinfecting wells

2. Cleaning and disinfecting boreholes

3. Cleaning and disinfecting water storage tanks and tankers

4. Rehabilitating small-scale piped water distribution systems

5. Emergency treatment of drinking water at the point of use

6. Rehabilitating water treatment works after an emergency

7. Solid waste management in emergencies

8. Disposal of dead bodies

9. How much water is needed

10. Hygiene promotion in emergencies

11. Measuring chlorine levels in water supplies

12. Delivering safe water by tanker

13. Planning for excreta disposal in emergencies

14. Technical options for excreta disposal

15. Cleaning wells after seawater flooding

16. Complete: all 15 notes in one file

Environmental health in emergencies and disasters: a practical guide

An updated WHO guide to emergency response and reducing the impact of disasters on infrastructure such as water supplies and sanitation facilities. You can download individual chapters.

Table of contents, Preface, Acknowledgements [pdf 432kb]

Chapter 1. About this book [pdf 151kb]

Chapter 2. The nature of emergencies and disasters [pdf 486kb]

Chapter 3. Predisaster activities [pdf 214kb]

Chapter 4. Emergency response [pdf 261kb]

Chapter 5. Recovery and sustainable development [pdf 186kb]

Chapter 6. Shelter and emergency settlements [pdf 333kb]

Chapter 7. Water supply [pdf 1.01Mb]

Chapter 8. Sanitation [pdf 654kb]

Chapter 9. Food safety [pdf 154kb]

Chapter 10. Vector and pest control [pdf 325kb]

Chapter 11. Control of communicable diseases and prevention of
epidemics [pdf 208kb]

Chapter 12. Chemical incidents [pdf 393kb]

Chapter 13. Radiation emergencies [pdf 221kb]

Chapter 14. Mortuary service and handling of the dead [pdf 103kb]

Chapter 15. Health promotion and community participation [pdf 218kb]

Chapter 16. Human resources [pdf 159kb]

References [pdf 147kb]

Annexes 1 to 3 [pdf 87kb]

Annexes 4 to 6 [pdf 68kb]

Safer Homes, Stronger Communities

A handbook for reconstructing after natural disasters. This manual is not yet in publication, but a digital copy is available here. It's more than 400 pages and a hefty download, but the table of contents is available here from which individual chapters can be downloaded.

The manual's creator, TCGI, points out that Chapter 10:  Housing Design and Construction, could be useful for disaster relief now.

Free satellite images of Haiti both before and after the earthquake

DigitalGlobe's Crisis Event Service is offering its satellite imagery service to help humanitarian work in Haiti. For free access go here.

Post-Disaster Ethics

Women and children first – they are the most vulnerable

Participatory Planning Guide for Post-Disaster Reconstruction

Disaster Management Ethics, part of the UNDP Disaster Management Training Programme. See “Managing Implementation at the Village Level.”

Greater aid transparency: crucial for aid effectiveness, a report

Aid organizations accepting donations to fund work in Haiti

Red Cross, or 800-HELP-NOW, or text "Haiti" to the number 90999 to send $10 to the Red Cross

Registered Engineers in Development Relief (Redr)

Partners in Health

Concern Worldwide

AmeriCares Foundation

CARE

Doctors Without Borders

UNICEF

These organizations are accepting donations to support long-term reconstruction in Haiti:

IEEE's Engineering Educational and Professional Development Rebuilding Fund. It will match donations up to the first US$50,000 contributed. To donate online.

Engineers Without Borders

Architecture for Humanity