GEO Haiti 2010

State of the Environment Report 2010
Table 16: Annual Average Surface Water Distribution by Hydrographic Region
N-O N C-N C-S S-E S-O Total
Area (km 2 ) 4,580 2,450 7,200 3,240 1,810 8,470 27,750
Surface Water (10 6 m 3 /year) 1,200 750 3,300 858 315 4,430 10,853
87
Source: FAO-AQUASTAT (www.fao.org/nr/water/aquastat/countries/haiti/index.stm)
The most important river is the Artibonite River.
It has its source in the western part of Hispaniola
and stretches across two Haitian provinces:
Centre and Artibonite. It is very important to
Haiti since it irrigates numerous farms as well
as provides electrical energy, for example, to
the Péligre hydro-electrical plant, an artificial
reservoir located in the Central province. These
installations supplied, up until the 1980s, Port-au-
Prince with most of its electricity, and in recent
decades, they have become less efficient mainly
due to silt deposits caused by the erosion of the
Artibonite River watershed.
1.1.2 Underground Water
• Underground water comes from the infiltration
of rain which seeps into the soil. It seeps
through the pores, micro-fissures and fissures
of rocks, moistening the deepest layers until
they reach an impermeable layer. Then, it
accumulates, filling and saturating the subsoil,
thereby forming an underground water
reservoir called an aquifer.
• In Haiti, during a period of 25 years prior to
1988, geophysical studies on underground
water were carried out in most of the alluvial
plains. Since then, the Geophysical Unit of
the National Water Resource Service (SNRE)
of Haiti has pursued this investigation, with
the support of the United Nations Project
(PNUD/DTCD/HAI/86/003: “Development and
Management of Water Resources” (Radstake,
1990a). Within the framework of the project,
the SNRE has carried out an inventory of Haiti’s
hydrological and hydro-geological data and as
well as drilling surveys as well as geophysical
exploration studies for underground water in
seven alluvial plains of Haiti.
• Underground water is generally found in
abundance across the plains and valleys of the
country, but the availability of fresh water in the
mountainous areas varies considerably; it may
be plentiful or scarce (PAHO/WHO, May 1996,
pp. 21 and 22). The alluvial plains and valleys
make up approximately 17% of the country’s
territory and account for 84% of its available
underground water reserves (R. B. Knowles et
al, 1999). The mountainous areas have many
types of aquifers, such as aquifers that are
karstic, fractured, with low permeability, and
also igneous aquifers. Therefore, there are:
• The karstic areas and extremely fractured
aquifers: 15% of the country and 2% of available
underground water reserves.
• The less-fractured and discontinuous aquifer
areas: 25% of the country and 12% of the
available underground water reserves.
• The low-permeability areas and igneous
aquifers: 42% of the country and less than 1%
of the available underground water reserves.
Figure 34: Map of Locations of SNRE geophysical
studies.
Source: F. Radstake al. 1992