Toronto Sun

Richard Fantinato has been to Haiti before, but not under such dire circumstances.

The 20-year Durham police officer and three GlobalMedic volunteers boarded a flight early yesterday from Montreal to Port-au-Prince, the Caribbean nation's capital city.

Their goal is to deliver clean water to the displaced residents of Gonaives to the north, who have been hard-hit by back-to-back tropical storms, leaving more than 60,000 people without shelter.

"Water has always been a big issue here," Fantinato, 46, said on a cellphone last night while travelling into Port-au-Prince. "Because of Hurricane Ike and the other tropical storms, this country only has about 35% of drinkable water at any given time."

WORKED WITH UN

Fantinato, a Bowmanville resident, served in Haiti in 2006 as part of a UN program, training Haitian law enforcement officers as part of Canada's efforts to rebuild the troubled Caribbean nation.

"This is really different, because we don't have the support of the UN that we had," Fantinato said. "There's four of us here and we're going to try to piggyback on to non-governmental organizations to go around. It'll be an hour-by-hour operation."

Across the country, at least 331 people have died. Flooding from Tropical Storm Hanna killed at least 172, most around the port city of Gonaives and destroyed or damaged thousands of homes.

GlobalMedic provides disaster relief using volunteers who work in emergency services. This team is carrying 11 water purification systems capable of providing clean water to 40,000 people daily and 1 million water purification tablets, which can clean a million litres of water. They plan to stay for a week.

"There's been lots of damage but they're certainly hoping they can get back on their feet," Fantinato said. "Residents are very supportive."

EARLIER AID

In February, GlobalMedic donated 20,000 tablets of antibiotics and 50,000 water purification tablets to Haiti, distributed by another Durham police officer, Anne Gouin.

"I was in the military for 10 years," Fantinato said. "If these people can live in these conditions, the least I can do is come here and spare some time to make their life better."