A MERCY mission plane carrying £150,000 worth of plastic sheeting, water and sanitation equipment will take off this evening from the Kent International Airport at Manston bound for the flood stricken island of Haiti.

The Oxfam aid plane is due to leave at 9pm and will arrive tomorrow morning in Gonaives, the town worst hit by the recent floods caused by tropical storm Jeanne.

Paul Smith Lomas, Oxfam's humanitarian director, said: "It is vital that we get this equipment out to Haiti quickly. Following the disastrous flooding, people have no access to clean water and the threat of disease is very great.

"We have been delivering clean water since Tuesday. These supplies will enable us to scale up our response and get some more permanent systems in place."

The plane will take 40 tonnes of aid - mainly water and sanitation equipment such as tanks, buckets, latrines and water purification chemicals. There will also be some family shelter kits including tents.

Mr Smith-Lomas said: "The needs are enormous. People there have lost everything. They have no clean water, no food, nowhere to live. The security situation is precarious because people are desperate. We are working as hard as we can with other agencies to help the hundreds of thousands of people affected but it is a challenging task."

This is the third bout of serious flooding in Haiti in a year and the country also suffered from political unrest at the beginning of 2004.

Haiti is the poorest country in the Western hemisphere. Poor infrastructure, deforestation and political instability all contribute to and intensify natural disasters. Oxfam has been working in Haiti for 30 years.