Michael's Blog

After 100 yards of travelling down a bumpy rubble strewn road David stopped the land cruiser. We had 3 miles of wet rocky descent ahead of us. He pushed hard to engage low-gear and then we were off again.

Shaken and most definitely stirred we drove slowly into the village of Medan Belize, a small fishing village 1 ½ hours east of Port-au-Prince, on the banks of lake Saumatre, a salt water lake on the border with the Dominican Republic.

We were in Haiti, and in this village in particular, to see the very first LIFESAVER project set up buy the Aid organisation Operation Blessing (www.ob.org). Remarkably this village had LIFESAVER jerrycans before the Earthquake hit on 12 January 2010. The villagers were to take part in a pilot project, coordinated through our US distributor Lifesaver USA (www.lifesaverusa.com), to test and weigh up the benefits and advantages of the jerrycans over what they currently had. Little did we know then that just over 2 months into the project disaster would befall their country.

David Darg from Operation Blessing introduced us to Prophet. Prophet lived 50 yards from the banks of the lake. He used to live further down the hill but since the quake he has had to move twice as the level of the lake continues to rise. Prophet is currently building a new house but until the roof goes on he must live with his son next door.


I wanted to see LIFESAVER in everyday use and asked Prophet to  show us into his home.   And there was his LIFESAVER jerrycan....


Prophet explained that every morning after washing their teeth for 15 minutes the whole family would come back to the house and get their morning drink of water. Almost from day 1 of receiving their LIFESAVER jerrycans from Operation Blessing this has been their routine. ‘And what water do you use for cooking’ I ask. ‘The rain water’ says Prophet.

I didn’t understand why they wouldn’t put all their water through the jerrycan. ‘Only drinking water from here’ says Prophet, ‘so my children don’t get sick.’

The Villagers' water comes from 2 sources. The first is rainwater, collected off the tin roofs of their huts. That is the easy way. When the rains hold off they have to make the arduous, blister inducing slog 3 miles up that steep rocky road every day just to reach the main road. They then have a further ½ mile to the nearest well....

Prophet fully understands the value of water. He has a lifetime of memories of his children being sick through drinking it.... I ask Prophet ‘how much is a jerrycan worth to you’. ‘There is no price, it is priceless’ he says....

That is when I saw that Prophet was the one who truly understood the value of water. Water is, monetarily priceless.



As an inventor, manufacturer and businessman I need to  ‘paradigm shift’.  Prophet is right, clean water is  priceless.  But in my world there is a price for cleaning it and a profit  required to do it.  So my challenge is to get the $ value of clean water  so low that it hardly registers on the monetary scale of the average Haitian  earning less than $2 per day...

The Route to Medan Belize could have been the Road to Thatta in Pakistan.  Even down to the brightly coloured buses and Taxis.  Mothers and children, heavy loads of washing, water atop their heads, rubbish and broken rocks everywhere, people trading on every inch of footpath and free road space and Coca Cola pushing their sugary brands of soft drinks to a new generation.  It was amazing, beautiful and sad all at the same time.

The expansive smoked glass windows in the lobby of the Sheraton Karachi bowed inwards like the walls of a balloon.  Convex immediately turns to concave.  I knew something was wrong.  My friend Aijaz with his back to the window carried on talking as he could not see what was happening.  I grabbed his shirt and pulled him to the cold marble floor.  A split second later an angry swarm of smoked glass shards blunderbuss over our heads.... Ears ringing we shuffle a bit closer to the wall. I begin to assess the situation.  It had to be a bomb.  I keep telling Aijaz to keep down.  If they are going to follow up, now is the time.

I phone my wife.  She is driving home from work so I decide not to tell her.  Better to wait until she gets home from collecting the children from school.... After 40 mins, ringing in my ears subsiding Aijaz and I stand up.  I think that it is safe now....

In 1927 Shiv Rattan Mohatta commissioned the building of the Mohatta Palace... in the affluent suburb of Clifton, Karachi..... Constructed at a time of great wealth and prosperity Mohatta Palace symbolised the coming of age of Karachi as an important regional and international trading port.




Symbolism is important in Pakistan.  Assembling the speakers for this conference was...designed to demonstrate that the coordination of Government, Agency and Private sector bodies could be achieved. (http://tribune.com.pk/story/74352/un-helps-corporate-sector-unite-for-a-cause/)

I have attended many conferences in my time most all of whose aims have rapidly withered the moment the bar has closed.  What makes this gathering different is the man behind it, Ali Jehangir Siddiqui....Driven by a deep routed sense of Noblesse Oblige, Ali is on a mission.  It is not about the Aid or its delivery, although he and his team are clearly making this happen....It is about the future of his country, Pakistan.  It’s about rebuilding a nation....

Pakistan is a nation of dormant and embryonic entrepreneurs.  Given the right climate phenomenal growth awaits.  China knows this.  In 1995 China and Pakistan shared the same GDP (per capita) but today it is a completely different story....

....The hopes of a nation rest on a few good men like Ali to create the new mechanics for growth. Small sustainable businesses turning a profit, employing people and contributing to the economies GDP.  Turning $1 into $2 is a lot easier than turning $1 into $1000’s....

I want to play my part in Ali’s Siddiqui’s vision.  Sustainable access to safe clean water is a keystone to this vision.  People have to be healthy to work....

Working with Ali and his team I hope to be able to deliver this keystone, first to Sindh province and then to the rest of Pakistan.... 

I thought that I would never get round to booking my trip again...while I know that I am doing some good things back in the UK there is no feeling like actually getting out into the field and helping....

I was due to fly into Karachi on Tuesday 9th November.  However, the Mahvash And Jahangir Siddiqui Foundation have organised a conference ‘United for a Cause’ taking place on Monday 8th November.  The conference will be jointly hosted by the United Nations, MJSF, JS Bank and the Provincial Disaster Management Authority Sindh.  I managed to change my flights so here I am.

The aim of the conference is generate action to rehabilitate this devastated country and I hope that I can do my part....

And finally some video of my trip to Pakistan

Life for me is, well normal again.  I do miss Pakistan!  I feel more able to make a difference there.... Having pushed a hole in my day for something I wanted to do I have finally put together a short video....I hope you like it.

....We left early, heading once more for Mr Abdul Wahid Uqail house (The District Commissioning Officer, DCO) to load up with LIFESAVER jerrycans.  Abdul was back at his office tending to the normal business of government but Maqsood his trusty commandant was there ready to go....

We were to spend the rest of the day out on the causeways helping the villagers who had not been reached by the agencies.

With not a cloud in the sharp cyan sky we set off again...Harry careered his way towards our first stop, Maqsood seated in the back giving the occasional directions.  We pulled up on a dusty azoic section of one of the many causeways.  Azoic it should have been but the villagers had again been forced to perch there, clawing onto life.  NASA had decades to plan their journey to the inhospitable surface of the moon.  These people had only a few hours.



Barren as this place was, you could detect a sense of anticipation on the faces of those we approached.  Quickly a huddle formed around Harry and Maqsood and within a minute a young man was heading down to the floodwaters to fill the LIFESAVER jerrycan.  As he carried it back more people had gathered around and the village elder was now being talked through how to use the LIFESAVER jerrycan by Harry....

The village elder had told Harry told they had tried to clean their own water.  Taking the flood water and putting it in old 1.5 litre bottles they would leave it out in the sun to stand for ½ hour.  This would allow some of the dirt to settle to the bottom.  They would then cyphon off the cleaner water and use this....

We were about to move to our next location when a UNFPA (http://www.unfpa.org) truck pulled up.  In it was a UN official and a doctor.  Not missing the opportunity to impress upon them our work I darted forward and gave them a demonstration.  “I never knew this existed” the official said, “this is amazing, where can we get hold of these.” I proceed to tell him of the great work the JS Foundation was doing and that if he would like to get hold of them Maqsood was the man.  I hooked them up, gave the UN guy a LIFESAVER jerrycan and again got ready to leave.


Out of the corner of my eye I saw a man in a white coat, stethoscope draped around his neck and two female Pakistani doctors.  They were slowly making their way down the causeway trying to help wherever they could.  “What are you doing here?” they asked in perfect English.  “Giving your people a means to clean their own water.” “That’s what I have been trying to do” the doctor said, “but I can’t.”  In his right hand a cluster of shiny foil strips.  The red printed text suggested medication of some sort....
 
I saw another response to the provision of safe water was to deliver 5 litre and 1.5 litre plastic bottles of the stuff.  I wrote about it before.  The trouble is that even if you can distribute these to 300 people in a day you have to visit the same 300 people again the next day.  Supporting this logistics chain is nigh on impossible.  To make the point, by comparison it costs $400 dollars per litre of fuel just to get fuel to the pumping station in Camp Bastion, Afghanistan.  Imagine the costs to ship water, on a daily basis to all corners of this tragedy.  Exactly!  This is why people continue to suffer.  Oh and don’t get me started on the environmental legacy of these plastic bottles!



....As we made our way up and down the causeways that crisscrossed Thatta, I felt calm.  It was as if my purpose was being realised.  Every stop meant 100 to 300 people could provide themselves with safe drinking water....Fantastic!....

A few months ago the British Library invited me to give an opening talk for their new exhibition, "Inventing the 21st Century".  I was very pleased to accept.  They had invited me to talk about my invention, how I thought that it had contributed to 'inventing the 21st century' and then make a few comments about the facilities at the Library.


About 6 weeks ago I decided that I had to go to Pakistan and find a way of trying to help the flood victims.  2 weeks ago I got an email from a friend of mine Chris Anderson the curator of TED.com.  He and his wife Jacqueline Novogratz, the founder of the Acumen Fund, wanted to find a way to help as well.  I met them both last year at TED09 in Oxford where I had the great privilege and honor of speaking.  (For those of you who are interested it is here http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/michael_pritchard_invents_a_water_filter.html

We went back and forth a bit and to my complete astonishment they offered to donate a considerable sum of money to help get my LIFESAVER jerrycans out to Pakistan. Now for those who want to see Chris and Jaqualine's experiences whilst they were in Pakistan please visit here, TEDchris.posterous.com....

So in modern parlance a 'BIG UP' to Chris and Jacqueline for making my trip possible and giving 10's of 1000's of Pakistani's the ability to provide their own clean sterile water....

So......... After knowing that I was going to Pakistan sooner than planned I knew I would have all of the experiences I needed to put my talk together.

On the PIA flight back from Karachi I busily set about preparing my speech.  

Standing in the wings waiting to deliver my 5 min speech; let’s just say the schedule was extending well beyond the allotted time,  I was just about to go up when it was quietly whispered in my ear "if I could just talk for 2 1/2 minutes that would be great". GREAT!, GREAT!, I thought.  I just missed out on 5 hours sleep on a plane back from Karachi to be told I could not give my prepared talk.  As I approached the stage I was actually thinking sod that I am going to give it anyway.  However as I looked out over the lectern and saw the expressions on the audience's faces...I decided to throw my prepared speech aside and just talk about Pakistan and my experience there.

My Wife, unknown to me decided to video it.  Being at the back with a little camera; it is not BBC broadcast quality but you can just about make out what I was saying.  I apologise now as at some points I was rambling a bit but I think I was able to get a message across.  The UK Minister of Industry the Honourable Jim Prentice was there and I think that we managed to get him thinking.  The whole experience was a bit emotional but I was glad I did it this way in the end.

Only now that I have spent some real time here in Pakistan do I begin to see the real picture.  It has been many long weeks since the start of the floods. Governments, International and local Aid agencies have set up their camps in many areas and the ones that I have seen and heard about appear to be run well.  One German journalist I spoke with this evening in the bar of the Sheraton recounted a story of the previous day.  He had visited a camp set up and run by the Pakistan Army in Sindh province.  During the interviews for his report that he would file that evening, he asked through his translator how things were.  ‘Not very good’ several of the inhabitants grumped back, ‘we get three meals a day but the food is not very good!’ When you hear comments like this you know that the people are being well looked after.


The emerging story that I see is the people who have made it to camps are being well looked after.  But it is those who have not, cannot or do not wish to make the journey who are the people in real need.  In Sindh alone, 1000’s of villages have been swept away with the floods with more being affected right now as I write. Most of the pooper homes are constructed of flimsy materials like coppiced branches or reeds which have been weaved and lashed together.  The floods arrived so quickly most fled with nothing.  The brave and the fortunate managed to throw as many of their possessions as they could onto their bed frames and head for higher ground.  Some even managed to save some of their animals but most lost everything....

What is quite amazing it the strength of the family and community bond here.  Where people have fled with nothing others have helped them build make shift reed and wooden shelters all along the tops of the causeways.  Some tents have made it to these areas but mostly it is the persistence and drive for survival of the villagers that mean they now have some shelter. It is however, the children with their immortal spirits that appear to give hope to all those around them.

We arrive at Jinnah International Airport for the second time. Harry is driving again.  With him was another police man. A broad chested man with sharp eyes and shiny shoes who carried his Kalashnikov as if he had been born with it.


Several trucks are loaded with the boxes and we take 4 boxes for ourselves....

We arrived back at Mr Abdul Wahid Uqails' house, District Commissioning Officer’s....Leaving the boxes in the house we take 8 LIFESAVER jerrycans with us and head out for the villages Maqsood has picked out for us.  Why these 2 in particular I ask him. “Very poor, very poor’ he says in his compassionate, thick Urdu accent....


We cannot make it all the way to the first village.  With flood waters for as far as the eye can see on our right we travel along another causway but are forced to stop about 200 yards away from the village.  A small bridge has become too weak and eroded by the floods, it is too narrow for the 4x4.  The people had already spotted us from afar and were streaming down the road to enquire as to what all of the fuss was about.

Entering the village my eyes seemed to involuntarily switch to grayscale.  The floodwaters had ripped right through the place....The odd shoe lay where it had stopped floating.  a piece of broken bottle wedged in the mud while all around, nothing.  These villagers had really lost everything.


There are about 250 people living in these squalid disease infested conditions.  The flood waters had recently subsided from this area so the people had tentatively moved back in.  Very little aid had reached them, save for the supplies that Maqsood had arranged.  They had not received any clean water and were instead relying on the waters that surrounded them.

We had handed over the two LIFESAVER jerrycans and I was just about to launch into my little training session when Harry suddenly took over.  And that was that.  He had them filling it with their drinking water; which to you and me looked more like a cup of very weak milky Earl Grey.... As he pumped he explained about the bacteria and virus removal and how they should clean and look after it.

I was amazed, Harry just stepped up without being asked and helped.  It was lovely to see this other side to him....After a few minutes he gestured for me to come forward and drink the water.  The weak stomached Englishman drank the water again.  The elder smiled and passed a cup of clean water to the children....It was marvelous.


After all the children had had a drink, a small 2 year old boy staggered forward from one of the grey wooden huts.  His clothes could not have been cleaned for weeks....An older boy handed him a full glass of water.  Taking it in two hands the little boy proceeded to drink and without stopping for breath, finishing the whole lot.  There was silence for a second or two and then all the children and adults started clapping............  I cried!  I didn’t think I would after the first day.  I had been so confused about my feelings all evening.  However this shining moment of happiness as the small boy stood there smiling with a satisfactory grin on his face made me well-up.  It was a similar happiness to that of my wedding day.  Joy and satisfaction just seemed to wash over me.

And that was our work done.  We said our goodbyes and made our way to the second village. Here they had managed to save a few more of their possessions.  They had some cattle, a few goats and 8 plastic chairs I might otherwise expect to find in my local garden centre.

The village elder explained that the whole village had been flooded.  He said the waters had come from over there in the east rising up until it completely engulfed the place. All of their crops have been ruined and their livelihoods have all but been washed away.  Dignity, pride and sadness all combined as he told his story to Mustafa from the JS foundation.


Again Harry clicked into action. I just sat back and with some degree of pride watched wistfully as he conducted his people.  The Imam had just started up over the loud hailers. Fasting was now over for that day. The Elder took a glass of water and when he had finished declared through Maqsood that it was “very good, very good”.  He then told Mustafa that when people became ill with stomach problems in his village they would raise some money and purchase a bottle of mineral water for them.  This would help flush out their system and they would get better.  He proclaimed that from now on they would no longer have to buy mineral water, these LIFESAVER jerrycans would produce their mineral water from now on.  Well that’s a pretty hard metaphor to beat.  He insisted we join him for a drink and some melon, which we gratefully did before taking our leave and heading home.