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Works in the Notre
Dame Hospital
Before the earthquake, Notre Dame was the only Hospital
for the whole Petit Goave region. Payments to the staff
working in the Hospital were six months delayed, so when
the earthquake hit the city and the building was seen
seriously damaged, the staff never returned to the job.
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Red Cross and other NGO’s
started the revitalization of the Hospital to
provide primary care, but many of the services
were difficult to rebuild. One of them was
Maternity.
Childbirths were attended in the Wesleyan
compound, close to the Hospital, but it was
considered of utmost importance to get the Notre
Dame Maternity Service operational as soon as
possible, so the Engineers team of the Spanish
Marines started working hard on it
Most of the assistance provided to the Notre
Dame Hospital was focused on construction, with
the renovation of the Maternity ward. They
removed rubble, levelled the ground with heavy
machinery, made rain water runoff drainages, did
carpentry and plumbing works, and also cement
lying, plaster patching, façade repairing and
painting. |
Spanish Marines cleared
areas that will allow room enough for 6
additional tents for medical assistance, and
also effectively destroyed vast expanses of
mosquito breeding ground which will lower the
future malaria susceptibility at the Hospital.
After more than a week of hard work, in
cooperation with other NGO’s, results were
obvious. Last week, Maternity Service was
finally fully operable. It is difficult to find
the way to properly judge the true impact of the
work done to serve mothers of Petit Goave. |
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Engineering works.
The Engineering team
of the Spanish Marines has been
focusing their work today in three
main tasks:
Demolishing private building at Rue
Republicaine. Local Authorities
usually request Spanish Task Group
the demolition of seriously damaged
buildings by the earthquake.
Upgrading terrains for the
installation of an IDP settlement in
cooperation with IOM. Today, a
surface of 1600 m2 has been graded.
Water delivering at Belle Avenue.
Ten thousands litres have been
delivered in the morning. |
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Main event of the day.
Petit Goave has grown up along the
N-2 road that joins Port of Prince
with the southwest side of the
country. This road runs east-west
through Petit Goave and has two
bridges marking the entry and exit
gates of the city. The western
bridge, also called Caiman Bridge (n
º 1 in Figure-3) crosses the Ravine
River. The eastern one, the La Digue
Bridge (n º 2 in Figure-3) crosses
the creek of La Digue. Spanish
Marines in coordination with Local
Authorities and Committee Communal
of Civil Protection observed that
the La Digue creek was stuck near
the bridge due to the big amount of
mud, sediments and rubbish existing
in that area.
The
onset rainy season, foreseen for the
months of April and May, could raise
the risk of floods by massive rain
water flow from closer mountains
running seawards through the creek.
In this stuck, the flooding could
overflow the bridge and cut the main
line of communication among the
regions of Ouest, Nippes, Sud and
Grand Anse with the capital city of
the country. |
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To
minimize this risk, Spanish Marines
were authorized by Local Authorities
to start clearing the creek last 11
March. This work has taken eighteen
days of engineering hard work, seven
days a week, to finally get the work
done last March 30th.
The clear passage of water under the
bridge in its way to the sea is
already granted. This is not only
useful to avoid the blocking of the
N-2 road, but also to avoid the
flooding of IDP camps settled in the
beds of the creek.
The results are impressive and
Spanish Marines have been
congratulated by the Mayor of the
city, for the well done work after
an enormous effort that the men and
women of the Engineers team made. |
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