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STORY: HAITI / BAN SANITATION LAUNCH
TRT: 3.47
SOURCE: MINUSTAH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH /CREOLE /NATS
DATELINE: 14 July 2014, LOS PALMAS, HAITI
1. Wide shot, helicopter arriving on the ground in Los Palmas
2. Med shot, people waiting for SG
3. Med shot, SG and Haitian Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe shaking hands with MINUSTAH representatives
4. Med shot, courtyard of family who lost members due to Cholera
5. Med shot, SG and Haitian Prime Minister coming out of courtyard where they met with family members
6. Med shot, cameraman waiting
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary General:
“I am very much humble and sad to have seen all this tragedy and how it has affected the Haitian population. I believe that the entire international community including United Nations has a moral duty to help those people to stop the further spread of cholera."
8. Med shot, SG, his wife and Prime Minister sitting at church Service
9. Wide shot, SG and his wife getting up to the podium
10. Med shot, Haitian sitting in church
11. Med shot, SG giving flowers to two ladies who are representing the 2 communities Jacob and Los Palmas who were badly hit by the cholera
12. Wide shot, people sitting in church
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary General:
“We are here together to remember the many thousands of people who have lost their lives to cholera, and to express our solidarity with their families and friends. As Secretary-General of the United Nations, I want to assure you that the United Nations and its partners are strongly committed to ending the epidemic as quickly as possible.“
14. Med shot, wife of SG looking at photos from the total sanitation campaign
15. Close up, 2 pictures from the construction work done in the village Los Palmas
16. Med shot, Unicef chief Edouard Beigbeder explaining to SG and Prime Minister photos of the total sanitation project
17. Wide shot, delegation looking at the photos
18. Wide shot, delegation sitting in tent during the official launch of the sanitation campaign
19. Medium shot, DSRSG Carl Alexandre and Peter de Clercq from UN mission MINUSTAH
20. SOUNDBITE (Creole) Laurent Lamothe, Prime Minister of Haiti:
“We would like to thank the Secretary General of the fact that he recognizes the moral responsibility that the United Nations have to help us to combat the cholera in our country. This is important for the Haitian population and for the Haitian government”.
21. Med shot, SRSG of UN mission Sandra Honore and Haitian minister of Health Florence Duperval
22. SOUNDBITE (English) Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary General:
"I am pleased to launch this campaign in Los Palmas. Together with its neighboring locality, Jacob, the men and women of the community have demonstrated what communities can do, with a little bit of help, to be the drivers of their own development”.
23. Med shot, Population outside tent applauding
24. Wide shot, SG and Haitian Prime Minister laying the first brick as a symbolic gesture to launch officially the launch of the total sanitation campaign
25. Med shot, Haitians looking at the first brick
26. Med shot, SG and Haitian Prime Minister wrapping two ends of a ribbon around a tree
27. Close up, first brick with image of the village
28. Med shot, delegation walking away
29. Delegation going to helicopter
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today called for intensified efforts to ensure access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation in Haiti, as he launched a new United Nations-supported initiative and met with families affected by cholera.
“As Secretary-General of the United Nations, I want to assure you that the United Nations and its partners are strongly committed to ending the epidemic as quickly as possible. We are making progress, and we will continue to pursue with all our energy our goal of freeing the country from the disease,” Ban said at a church service in the village of Los Palmas.
Ban also said he knows "that the epidemic has caused much anger and fear. I know that the disease continues to affect an unacceptable number of people. Whatever I say today will not lessen the despair you have felt over the loss of your loved ones.”
There have been around 703,000 suspected cases of cholera and an estimated 8,500 deaths reported since the beginning of the epidemic in October 2010.
The UN has initiated a system-wide effort to support the Haitian Government to fight the disease. In December 2012, Ban launched an initiative for the elimination of cholera in Haiti and the Dominican Republic that focuses on prevention, treatment and education, as well as infrastructure planning for the long-term.
Concerted Haitian and international efforts have succeeded in significantly reducing the toll of the epidemic. There has been a 74 per cent reduction of the number of cases in the first five months of 2014 compared to the same period last year.
Despite the progress made, structural issues, including weak water, sanitation and health systems, enable cholera, acute diarrhoea or other waterborne diseases to persist.
While in Los Palmas, the Secretary-General launched, with Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe, the country’s “Total Sanitation Campaign” which aims to scale up sanitation and hygiene interventions in rural areas.
Ban called the campaign “a development milestone” for the country, where half the population lacks access to adequate sanitation systems. “The need for this step is clear.”
Supported by the UN, the campaign aims to raise sanitation standards and improve health conditions at the modes cost of only $4 per person.
The Secretary-General said the UN stands ready to help expand the initiative to the most remote areas and to places where cholera persists. Together with the World Bank, the UN will assist the Haitian Government in targeting an initial 20 communes affected by the disease, covering 3 million people within the next five years.
He said that “the cholera rates are declining and the battle is slowly being won. We must, however, intensify these efforts. And we must focus on the wider quest to ensure access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation. I call upon all of Haiti’s international partners to support this initiative and help us expand it to every community in Haiti. With commitment, vision and solidarity, the progress we seek – and that Haitians deserve – can be ours. You can count on me and the United Nations to do our part.”
