U.S. Department of the Interior Office of Insular Affairs

Guam National Guard Ready to Deploy Water Purification Unit to Assist Tsunami Victims in Indian Ocean

HAGÅTÑA - The contingent that the Guam National Guard is ready to deploy will deliver fresh water to the tsunami victims in the Indian Ocean area, the adjutant general Col. Jerry M. Rivera said yesterday.

"Our biggest contribution to the U.S.'s relief effort is the reverse osmosis water purification unit. There are specialists coming this week to help repair it because we cannot repair it ourselves. Once it's up and running, it will be utilized to produce clean fresh water," Rivera said.

The Air National Guard's 254th Security Forces Squadron has formed two 13-man teams to support the Pacific Air Forces in Operation United Assistance, the largest humanitarian relief effort in aid of the victims of the Dec. 26 tsunami that killed tens of thousands of people in more than 11 countries.

"The two most critical needs in that area are medical assistance and water," said Rivera.

"People there are getting sick because of water contamination," he continued. "Our teams' mission is to help prevent people from getting diarrhea or other diseases that might be there because of water contamination. They need feeding, medical attention and water."

He said the contingent teams are on stand-by and awaiting orders and mission details.

"We will be notified if there's a need for us to go. We're glad to be of help even though we are just a part of the bigger picture," Rivera said.

"Percentage-wise, we're doing more than our fair share even though we're a smaller organization. We're talking about more than 50 percent of our total force that will be deployed out there in the Indian Ocean, in Iraq, Afghanistan and other conflict areas," he added.

The selected members of the two teams began training to prepare for the mission over the weekend during the monthly Unit Training Assembly at Andersen AFB.

Quoting government officials' statistics, CNN reported that the death toll from the undersea earthquake off Sumatra and the giant waves it triggered has reached 149,540 people.

According to the CNN report, Indonesia has the highest number of deaths at 104,550, followed by Sri Lanka with 29,657, and India, 10,151.

Hundreds of thousands of others in the 11 disaster-stricken countries were still reported missing.