Two member companies of the Portable Sanitation Association International are located in or near Haiti’s capital city of Port-au-Prince, devastated by a category 7 earthquake on Jan. 12. PSAI representative Millicent Carroll has heard from one of the restroom contractors, but cannot reach the other.
Carroll received an e-mail from Frantz Bastien, owner of the company Ramador, located just outside of the capital city. He reported that his family and people he works with made it through the earthquake.
Despite sending daily e-mails, Carroll has not heard from Jovenel DuBois, whose business, Jedco Services, S.A., is located near the epicenter of the earthquake. DuBois or others from his company have been frequent attendees at the Pumper & Cleaner Environmental Expo International and PSAI conferences, and Carroll reports that DuBois is the only PSAI-certified service technician in Haiti.
Reading about the quake that toppled thousands of buildings, and seeing new estimates of at least 200,000 dead in Port-au-Prince, Carroll is concerned about DeBois, who she talks to a few times a year and calls a visionary for promoting portable sanitation in a region where it is a new concept.
“These are extremely intelligent individuals,’’ Carroll says of both Haitian contractors. “For these companies to persevere in that kind of environment, it takes the tenacity of a salesman, an astute businessperson and a visionary. They are the true spirit of the entrepreneur.’’
Carroll reports that portable sanitation is not yet a critical piece of the puzzle for emergency workers flooding into Haiti. The logistics of placing and serving restrooms, or disposing of the waste, are difficult to imagine right now. She says a PSAI member contractor in the neighboring Dominican Republic is poised to deliver 1,200 units if needed. Also, Carroll says she has received numerous offers of free restroom units and vacuum trucks from U.S. contractors if a relief agency will deliver them to Haiti.
For portable restroom operators who want to contribute to the relief effort, Carroll suggests donating money to familiar charities, including the Red Cross, that guarantee the majority of donated funds go directly to efforts in Haiti.
