Providing safe drinking water after the devastation of the hurricanes in the Caribbean

In response to the devastation caused by the Category 5 Hurricanes Irma and Maria throughout the Caribbean, Aquabox has dispatched 180 AquaFilter Family units to the British Virgin Islands, which suffered widespread destruction. The filters will provide much-needed safe drinking water and will be distributed by Rotary District 7020.

On 6th September 2017 Hurricane Irma crossed the Caribbean leaving a trail of destruction in its wake, followed 10 days later by Hurricane Maria. Significant damage from these hurricanes caused major problems with water supplies, sanitation, food supply, electricity, transportation, shelter and communications.

Many islands were affected, including Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, the British Virgin Islands, Cuba, Dominica, the Dominican Republic, Guadeloupe, Haiti, Martinique, Puerto Rico, Saint Barthelemy, Saint Martin, Saint Maarten, Turks and Caicos, and the US Virgin Islands.

A consignment of 15 Aqua12 boxes, each containing 12 AquaFilter Family units left the Aquabox depot on 24th October. Designed for use by individuals or a family, an AquaFilter Family unit can deliver 1 litre per minute and half a million litres of clean drinking water over its working life.

The Aquabox Trustees have worked tirelessly over the last few weeks to identify a secure and effective channel of distribution for our water filters and we are very grateful to our friends in Rotary District 7020, which covers much of the Caribbean, for their help in enabling this to happen.