LWF/ACT provides water in rural Haiti: A simple need with a challenging solution

The eight-part plan for obtaining life-changing, clean water

Following flooding in Haiti a year ago, the Lutheran World Federation-Haiti, ACT’s member there, responded in a variety of ways. After some of the immediate and basic needs were provided for, LWF/ACT began to look for solutions to one of the longer-term problems – the difficulty in finding accessible, clean water. While the problem was identified easily, the solution proved to be much more complex, but once completed, this project will provide life-changing and life-sustaining water to thousands of people.

First, the source had to be capped. This involved building a six-by-ten-meter concrete box around the spring to keep the water pure, capture it and send it down the mountain in pipes. The source is unreachable by vehicle. It’s a 30-minute hike up steep, difficult terrain.

Second, a road had to be repaired and parts of it built. This road has made it possible to truck the needed materials up near the source. Materials are carried on foot from there. Work on the road has been a source of jobs for local residents in a country where more than 60 percent of the residents are not formally employed. Also, this improved infrastructure will contribute to the area’s long-term economic development.

Third, 8.3 kilometers of polyurethane pipe 16 centimeters in diameter near the source and 10 centimeters in diameter farther down the mountain needed to be laid. The pipe came in 82 pieces that weighed a total of 12,629 kilograms. The pipes (100 meters each) couldn’t make it all the way up the mountain by truck, so the last stage of transportation involved cutting them in half so they could be carried up the mountain by teams of fifteen men.

Standing down in the plain below the source, one sees a vein of exposed dirt and rock running about halfway up along the length of the mountain to the right of the spring. The pipes are buried under the vein of dirt and rock to protect them. More than four kilometers, by far the most challenging half of the pipe work, have already been laid. The next section will move down flatter, safer ground rather than along a steep mountainside.

A local engineer, Roldophe Jean, from the nearby town of Thiotte (where LWF has a large coffee project), is wearing a construction helmet and saying how proud he is of the project. “None of my friends and nobody around here thought it was possible,” he says, pointing up at the vein along the mountainside. “But look!”

Fourth, the pipes need to be linked to 19 kiosks built throughout the area, which is where residents will eventually go to fill up their buckets. The kiosks will be managed by a small committee in each community.

Fifth, a reservoir will be rehabilitated and another will be built along the distribution lines. From these reservoirs, lines will continue distribution to Mapou and the surrounding communities.

Sixth, the long-term viability of this water source will be studied. Violaine Bault, a young French woman who is a hydro-geologist doing an internship with LWF, is looking at soil samples and area practices of planting and livestock grazing. This is the first step in coming up with a reforestation plan that will ensure long-term viability of this 27-square-kilometer water basin that ranges in elevation from 2,300 meters to 900 meters at the spring and that is very steep in parts. Erosion must be prevented because a water basin is basically a huge reservoir inside a mountain. More trees and the right crops—as well as building erosion-protecting rock walls—mean more soil will be retained. More soil means that more rainwater is absorbed. This rainwater then eventually filters down through the soil into the mountain reservoir. Such reforestation measures are essential.

The seventh step involves helping with community organization. A community organizer, Gerald Salomon, is educating people about the health importance of clean water and working full-time to organize and prepare communities to manage the water source and distribution system when it is complete. The LWF/ACT pipes will reach the communities of Machas, Grand Fond, Ka Conté, Tiplace, Bois Tombé, Nan Roc, and Nan Didier. By charging half a gourde per bucket, the project will generate annual revenue of 2 million gourdes, based on annual consumption of 20 million gallons of water in all the benefiting communities. This US$50,000 of revenue, overseen by a central committee, makes the project sustainable by providing money for employment, repair, and expansion of the distribution network to other communities.

By the time it’s finished, about 200 women and men will have worked on the water system and about 240 people on the road project, most of them in two-week shifts. This provides people with much-needed income and also builds community support of the project.

The engineer in charge of the road project is Guerline Pierre, who is also from the nearby town of Thiotte. “By involving people in the labor, we’re building support in the community,” she says, “and helping them to see how the project benefits them as a community and as individuals.” Each day, two teams work on the road—the women in dresses, the men in dress slacks and shirts as they collect rocks, swing picks, and dig dirt.

Didier Gallard, a French engineer working as an LWF/ACT consultant, says about the complicated social factors, historical divisions, and political conflicts that might threaten cooperation, “We’re trying to keep people focused solely on the water. We hope and believe the need for water is something everyone can agree on, despite whatever other divisions and conflicts exist in the communities.”

This social aspect also fits within LWF’s mission in Haiti to advance peaceful conflict resolution. By working with the community, providing a much-needed resource, and helping to organize the community based on an essential resource, the hope is to provide an opportunity for positive social development. This social aspect will likely prove as challenging to the project’s long-term success as all the technical difficulties combined.

The final part of the plan involves collaborating with other organizations. LWF is the lead partner and organization on the ground. But to accomplish something of this scope requires significant collaboration. Other contributors include MINUSTAH, the U.N. mission in Haiti, which financed construction of a water reservoir and terracing work to enable the pipes to be laid; OCHA, the U.N. office for humanitarian affairs, which funded the purchase of pipes; Catholic Relief Services and CONCERN, which financed different feasibility studies; and OXFAM, which repaired a water tank and is installing pipes and building distribution kiosks. The final project cost for this stage will be about US$150,000 (or about $10 per person). LWF is now seeking $370,000 in funding to extend a different, 17-kilometer branch of piping to reach 15,000 more people.

In the midst of this eight-part complexity, a guiding ideal has been simplicity, which is one of the French engineer Gallard’s specialties. He says that the essential simplicity at the core of this project is what will make it a long-term success. First, the water flows from the source down to the villages through the pipes by the force of gravity, not a pump—so there is much less that can go wrong. Second, they have utilized parts that are as simple and fixable as possible. Third, during construction they have been giving technical training to many local people who have been involved throughout the whole process. “It’s not a djyab,” says Didier, invoking the name of indigenous, mysterious spirits. “There are no secrets. People will understand how this thing works and how to fix any problems it might have.”