Using a felt-tipped marker, Bang-Gu Jiang carefully wrote the words “water purification materials” in Chinese on boxes headed to the earthquake zone.
The Toronto lawyer was at an airport-area warehouse yesterday where members of GlobalMedic, a local aid group, were readying purification tablets and machines for shipment to quake-ravaged areas of Sichuan province.
Two members of GlobalMedic have already arrived in Chengdu with some supplies and will train locals on how to make water drinkable.
“Oh my God, I’m so grateful,” said Jiang, president of Toronto’s Sichuan Association of Canada. “It’s just amazing. You can imagine right now people don’t have a safe source of water to drink.”
The organization is arranging for air shipment of more equipment, which could arrive by mid-week, including a large purification unit called The Nomad, which can provide 100 litres a minute — enough to supply 70,000 people — at low cost.
