Getting the volunteers and equipment to the affected areas

  • Organizing emergency response teams

    The volunteers' first glimpse of where they will be working.

  • Loading the emergency equipment

  • Coming face to face with the aftermath of the tsunami

  • Getting the volunteers and equipment to where they are needed

  • Checking the equipment

  • The welcome of the local community

  • Assisting NGOs

  • Living conditions

  • Inventory of requirements

  • Assessing the quality of the wells

  • Prioritizing drinking water for the hospital

  • Repairing the water supply system in Meulaboh

  • Treating water

  • Storing drinking water

  • Supplying water

  • Monitoring the quality of the drinking water

  • Children back at school

  • Supplying drinking water to remote villages

  • Concentrating on the task ahead

  • The feeling of having been useful


© Veolia Waterforce

Sumatra - travelling by local truck

The volunteers first task is to organize the logistics of moving people and equipment.

The teams have to overcome numerous hurdles just to get to the affected areas.

Jean-Paul Rochart is a wastewater operative from Générale des Eaux in Hirson in the east of France. He first had to get on board a light airplane chartered by the Red Cross to get from Jakarta to Lampidi. This is the nearest airport that has not been affected by the earthquake to Meulaboh on the island of Sumatra. Finally, it takes another four hours of travelling in the "pampa" in order to bypass all the roads and bridges that had been cut off in order to get to his destination.

Christine Bailly is a technician from the laboratory at CAE - Centre d'Analyse de l'Environnement (Environmental Analysis Center).After being met by representatives from the Red Cross in Colombo, it takes more than ten hours to travel the 200 km to Ampara on tortuous and congested roads.

Despite what were sometimes rather adverse conditions the equipment gets to where it is needed thanks to the tireless assistance of the local communities.