GEO Haiti 2010

GEO HAITI • 2010
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A research team was created on the issue of
“waste” at the Water Quality and Environment
Laboratory (LAQUE) of Quisqueya University (UniQ).
As key stakeholders in this project and leaders
of various investigations, the team has rapidly
acquired the necessary experience, particularly
in the field of composting, to intervene in other
current projects, as the one of OXFAM, within the
Eau-Cap project, in Jacmel and Saint-Marc.
The UNDP has also established a composting
project at Carrefour-Feuilles where interns have
been trained. The Quisqueya University was
responsible of its scientific follow-up, which would
allow the intervention to be renewed in order to
make it sustainable.
8.3.2 The Issue of Potable Water
Two systems have been put in place regarding the
supply of potable water in the country:
• CAMEP – Metropolitan Autonomous Potable
Water Plant, created in 1989 under the authority
of the Ministry of Public Works, is responsible for
supplying the areas of Port-au-Prince, Piéton-
Ville, Delmas and Carrefour. Its management
system still is inadequate and characterized
by institutional instability, a lack of investment
capacity, low output and insufficient revenue
collection. In Port-au-Prince, CAMEP’s network
serves all official neighbourhoods, but not the
squatter settlements.
• SNEP, National Potable-Water Service, created
in 1977, was originally intended to supply the
smaller towns of all regions throughout the
country. However, since 1989, it only serves the
regions not covered by CAMEP.
According to GRET, in 2000, of Port-au-Prince’s
2.5 million inhabitants, only 27,500, or 1.4% of
the population were officially connected to
CAMEP’s potable-water supply network, although
the water-table on the periphery of the city was
capable of supplying the entire population.
Water, as healthcare and education, has long
been considered a basic service. The price of
water billed to the public is generally substantially
lower than its true cost and revenue collection is
not systematic. Additionally, only the middle and
upper classes, mainly in the urban areas, are usually
supplied with potable water. The chronic deficit in
State revenues hinders the expansion of the water
supply network and ensures only a minimum level
of maintenance and quality control.
Vast segments of the population are forced to
obtain fresh water by other means. Some take
the risk of drinking from contaminated rivers or
decrepit wells and their health often suffers the
consequences. Others connect illegally to the
public water network. But sooner or later, most
end up buying water from private suppliers, legal
or illegal, who make attractive profits by carting
or trucking water to the poor neighbourhoods.
Several studies show that the prices charged by
these suppliers can be up to 30 times higher than
those paid by households connected to the public
network (Constance, 1999).
8.3.3 Sewage Disposal
Compared to industrialised nations, in developing
countries the load of wastewater pollution
contained in the effluents of the urban sanitation
systems is discharged practically unchanged into
the ecosystems. The inherent danger of these
effluents to the ecosystems is apparent in the two
management methods explained below. However,
it is generally more acute in developing countries
because of insufficient or non-existent dilution.
a) Disposal of Excreta in Urban Areas
Most people in the metropolitan areas do not
have a septic tank and are not connected to
the sewage system. Excreta directly pollute the
natural environment (mangrove forests, riverbeds,
underground through cesspools) which of course
has repercussions on the quality of water (Les
Amis de la Terre, 2005).
The following graph shows the evolution in
excreta disposal conditions across the country
from 1980 to 1997.