01/26/2010 - Süd-Chemie donates drinking water facility as humanitarian aid for Haiti

Süd-Chemie AG, Munich, is donating a mobile drinking water purification facility as humanitarian aid for the earthquake victims in Haiti.

Haiti was struck by a severe earthquake on 12 January 2010. Estimates are assuming up to 200,000 fatalities and over a million people homeless dependent on outside help. Supplying the population with drinking water continues to be a great challenge for the rescue workers.

Süd-Chemie has therefore decided to donate an Aquacube mobile water purification facility for the victims of the earthquake in Haiti – as the company also did following the 2005 Tsunami disaster in Indonesia, Hurricane Katrina in 2005 in the United States, the 2007 earthquake in Peru and the 2008 earthquake in China. The mobile Aquacube facility will transform up to 2,500 litres of water per hour into potable water on site. Süd-Chemie employees will for several weeks come to Haiti in order to start up and ensure the smooth operation of the facility and train local people to operate it.

The equipment will be flown from Süd-Chemie's site in Johannesburg/South Africa to Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic, and from there, will be immediately transported by land to neighbouring Haiti so that it arrives in the disaster area as quickly as possible. The transport of the facility is being organized jointly with the Beschaffungsgesellschaft für kirchliche, caritative und soziale Einrichtungen (BEGECA), a procurement company for church-related, charitable and social institutions which possesses a great amount of experience and know-how in logistics management for worldwide humanitarian missions.

Munich, 26 January 2010

About Süd-Chemie

Süd-Chemie (www.sud-chemie.com) is specialty chemicals company headquartered in Munich, Germany and operating on a worldwide scale. The common denominator of all Süd-Chemie products and services is the efficient and sparing use of natural resources to enhance the quality of life for humans and the environment. Key markets served by its Adsorbents Division include the consumer goods, packaging and foundry industries, as well water treatment. Products manufactured by the Catalysts Division offer solutions for the chemical, petrochemical and refinery industries, for energy storage and hydrogen production, as well as off-gas purification. The group currently employs some 6,700 people at over 80 sales and production companies worldwide.

In its Water Treatment Business Unit, Süd-Chemie offers products and solutions for water treatment and water management to companies and local authorities having its main regional focus of operations in emerging economies in South Africa, Southeast Asia, and Latin America and in the Alpine region in Europe.