Water supply and sanitation in Haiti
Encyclopedia
| Haiti Haiti Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island... : Water and Sanitation |
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| Data | ||
| Access to an improved water source Improved water source According to the Joint Monitoring Program for Water Supply and Sanitation by the World Health Organization and UNICEF the following are considered as "improved" water sources:* household connections* public standpipes* boreholes* protected dug wells... |
63% (2008) | |
| Access to improved sanitation Improved sanitation According to the Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation by the World Health Organization and UNICEF the following are considered as "improved" sanitation:* connection to a public sewer* connection to a septic system* pour-flush latrine... |
17% (2008) | |
| Continuity of supply (%) | Mostly intermittent | |
| Average urban water use (l/c/d) | n/a | |
| Average urban water tariff (US$/m3) | n/a | |
| Share of household metering | Almost nil | |
| Annual investment in WSS | n/a | |
| Share of self-financing by utilities | Nil | |
| Share of tax-financing | Nil | |
| Share of external financing | 100% | |
| Institutions | ||
| Decentralization to municipalities | None, but envisaged | |
| National water and sanitation company | DINEPA | |
| Water and sanitation regulator | None | |
| Responsibility for policy setting | Ministry of Public Works | |
| Sector law | Yes | |
| Number of urban service providers | n/a | |
| Number of rural service providers | Comités d'Eau (hundreds) | |
Haiti
Haiti
Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...
faces key challenges in the water supply
Water supply
Water supply is the provision of water by public utilities, commercial organisations, community endeavours or by individuals, usually via a system of pumps and pipes...
and sanitation
Sanitation
Sanitation is the hygienic means of promoting health through prevention of human contact with the hazards of wastes. Hazards can be either physical, microbiological, biological or chemical agents of disease. Wastes that can cause health problems are human and animal feces, solid wastes, domestic...
sector:
Notably, access to public services is very low, their quality is inadequate and public institutions remain very weak despite foreign aid and the government's declared intent to strengthen the sector's institutions. Foreign and Haitian NGOs play an important role in the sector, especially in rural and urban slum areas.
Access
Haiti's coverage levels in urban and rural areas are the lowest in the hemisphere for both water supply and sanitation. Sewer systems and wastewater treatment are nonexistent.| Urban (47% of the population) | Rural (53% of the population) | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Improved water source Improved water source According to the Joint Monitoring Program for Water Supply and Sanitation by the World Health Organization and UNICEF the following are considered as "improved" water sources:* household connections* public standpipes* boreholes* protected dug wells... |
52% | 56% | 54% |
| Improved sanitation Improved sanitation According to the Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation by the World Health Organization and UNICEF the following are considered as "improved" sanitation:* connection to a public sewer* connection to a septic system* pour-flush latrine... |
24% | 10% | 17% |
Source: Joint Monitoring Program WHO
Who
Who may refer to:* Who , an English-language pronoun* who , a Unix command* Who?, one of the Five Ws in journalism- Art and entertainment :* Who? , a 1958 novel by Algis Budrys...
/UNICEF(JMP, using estimates from the Demographic and Health Survey 2006
In rural areas those without access to an improved water source
Improved water source
According to the Joint Monitoring Program for Water Supply and Sanitation by the World Health Organization and UNICEF the following are considered as "improved" water sources:* household connections* public standpipes* boreholes* protected dug wells...
got their water primarily from unprotected wells (5%), unprotected springs (37%) and rivers (8%). In urban areas those without access to an improved source got their water from "bottled water" (20%), from carts with drums (4%) and unprotected wells (3%). Those without access to improved sanitation either used shared latrines or defecated in the open. According to the Demographic and Health Survey 2006, 10% of those living in urban areas and 50% of those living in rural areas defecated in the open.
Service quality
Coverage figures do not give an indication of service quality, which is generally quite poor. In rural areas, systems have often fallen into disrepair. They either do not provide any water service at all or provide service only to those close to the source, with those at the end of the system ("tail-enders") remaining without water. In almost all urban areas water supply is intermittent.History and recent developments
François Duvalier
François Duvalier was the President of Haiti from 1957 until his death in 1971. Duvalier first won acclaim in fighting diseases, earning him the nickname "Papa Doc" . He opposed a military coup d'état in 1950, and was elected President in 1957 on a populist and black nationalist platform...
created CAMEP, the Centrale Autonome Métropolitaine d'Eau Potable, responsible for the Port-au-Prince
Port-au-Prince
Port-au-Prince is the capital and largest city of the Caribbean nation of Haiti. The city's population was 704,776 as of the 2003 census, and was officially estimated to have reached 897,859 in 2009....
metropolitan area. Subsequently, in 1977 the government of his son Jean-Claude Duvalier
Jean-Claude Duvalier
Jean-Claude Duvalier, nicknamed "Bébé Doc" or "Baby Doc" was the President of Haiti from 1971 until his overthrow by a popular uprising in 1986. He succeeded his father, François "Papa Doc" Duvalier, as the ruler of Haiti upon his father's death in 1971...
created SNEP (Service National d'Eau Potable) to be in charge of water supply in the rest of the country. Shortly afterwards a rural water and hygiene unit called POCHEP after its French acronym was created in the Ministry of Health, since SNEP was focusing on secondary towns and did not have the ability to serve rural areas. All three entities struggled to increase coverage at the desired pace and to provide adequate levels of service quality. Nevertheless, the 1980s witnessed a certain increase of coverage as part of the International Water and Sanitation Decade, supported by numerous donors including the World Bank
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes.The World Bank's official goal is the reduction of poverty...
and the IDB
IDB
IDB can mean:* Inter-American Development Bank, also known as IADB* IDB Communications Group, Inc., a constituent of MCI Inc.* Illegal Diamond Buying, the term used at the turn of the 19th-20th century for diamond trading outside the De Beers cartel....
as well as by numerous NGOs.
The 1990s witnessed a series of setbacks for the country and consequently for the water and sanitation sector as well. After a 1991 military coup foreign aid was suspended for three years. Aid began to flow in again after the return of Jean-Bertrand Aristide
Jean-Bertrand Aristide
Jean-Bertrand Aristide is a Haitian former Catholic priest and politician who served as Haiti's first democratically elected president. A proponent of liberation theology, Aristide was appointed to a parish in Port-au-Prince in 1982 after completing his studies...
in 1994, a period which witnessed the emergence of water committees in Port-au-Prince. These community organizations sell water to slum dwellers at a small profit, which is reinvested in small-scale community infrastructure such as sports facilities or sanitary facilities. The water is bought from the utility, for which the water committees are one of their best-paying customers.
The Preval
René Préval
René Garcia Préval is a Haitian politician and agronomist who was the President of the Republic of Haiti from 14 May 2006 to 14 May 2011. He previously served as President from February 7, 1996, to February 7, 2001, and as Prime Minister from February 1991 to October 11, 1991.-Early life and...
government has engaged in a reform of the water sector by establishing a national directorate for water and sanitation and regional service providers through a framework law passed in 2009. The law aims at strengthening the government's policy and regulatory functions, to provide more orientation to the numerous NGOs active in water and sanitation.
In January 2010 parts of Haiti including the capital were hit by a massive earthquake. More than 1.5 million people were displaced and had to live in refugee camps without piped water supply or sanitation, where most of them still lived one year after the earthquake.
In October 2010 a cholera epidemia broke out that killed 6,435 people until September 2011. According to the US Center for Disease Control the suspected source for the epidemic was the Artibonite River
Artibonite River
The Artibonite River is a 320 km long river in Haiti . It is the longest as well as the most important river in Haiti and the longest on the island of Hispaniola. Forming part of the international border between Haiti and the Dominican Republic, the river's sources are in the Cordillera Central in...
, from which some of the affected people had drunk water. An article in the journal Nature argues that "the limited resources available to combat the country's cholera epidemic should be spent on sanitation and clean water, rather than on vaccination".
Responsibility for water supply and sanitation
Regional service providers under the authority of the DINEPA are called OREPA (Offices Régionaux de l’Eau Potable et de l’Assainissement) and provide water supply in urban areas. Municipalities have are supposed to become responsible for water supply and sanitation in the long run as per the framework law, but their capacity is limited and currently they play almost no role in the sector. Private operators and what is called "professional operators" can also operate water systems according to the framework law. There are hundreds of water committees, called CAEPAs (Comités d'Aprovisionnement en Eau Potable et d'Assainissement) or simply Comités d'Eau, in charge of water systems in rural areas and some small towns. They consist of elected community members. Their degree of formalization and effectiveness varies considerably. The best water committees meet regularly, closely interact with the community, regularly collect revenues, hire a plumber who performs routine repairs, have a bank account and are registered and approved by DINEPA. However, many water committees fall short of these expectations. There is no national or regional registry of water committees or water systems and there are no associations of water committees at the municipal, departmental or national level. Another public entity that invests in water supply is FAES, a Social Fund
Social fund
A social fund is an institution, typically in a developing country, that provides financing for small-scale public investments targeted at meeting the needs of poor and vulnerable communities...
.
Sector agencies have lost qualified and trained staff, often to NGOs and donor agencies, because of their low pay levels. NGOs perform a wide variety of functions and often attract the most qualified and motivated staff due to their higher salary levels. They are particularly active in rural areas, but also in small towns and urban slums.
Tariffs, cost recovery and financing
Tariffs in Haiti are flat rates due to the absence of metering for most customers, and can vary greatly depending on location and provider. Tariffs in the metropolitan area of Port-au-Prince are much higher than those in provincial towns. Tariffs are lowest in rural areas, if they are charged at all. In 2008 water tariffs in small towns varied from about the equivalent of $1 per month in the central plateau to roughly $7.30 per month in KenscoffKenscoff
Kenscoff is a town in the Ouest Department of Haiti, located in mountainous country some 10 kilometres to the southeast of the capital Port-au-Prince. The altitude is approximately 1500 meters. Because of its altitude, the temperature is on average cooler than the capital and during winter months...
near the capital.
Metering is rare outside the capital and even there only a fraction of customers are are metered, in particular water committees in the informal settlements in Port-au-Prince as well as industrial customers. Many private citizens and some major consumers, such as luxury hotels, have disconnected from the public network and receive all their water via tanker trucks.
The revenues of the OREPA barely cover operating costs, leaving insufficient resources for maintenance and no resources to self-finance investments. This problem is also evident in the myriad of community- and privately- operated smaller systems throughout the country. Sometimes water is cut off to enforce payments, partly because payments cannot be enforced through the legal system. However, many customers reconnect illegally.
External cooperation
Almost all investments are financed through grants and credits by foreign donors (chiefly the IDBIDB
IDB can mean:* Inter-American Development Bank, also known as IADB* IDB Communications Group, Inc., a constituent of MCI Inc.* Illegal Diamond Buying, the term used at the turn of the 19th-20th century for diamond trading outside the De Beers cartel....
, the World Bank
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes.The World Bank's official goal is the reduction of poverty...
, USAID and the European Union), as well as by grants from NGOs.
Non-governmental organizations (NGOs): Many NGOs finance their activities through both individual contributions and grants that come directly from government donors or indirectly through the Haitian government.
Some of the NGOs active in drinking water supply in Haiti are:
- Action Contre la Faim (French),
- the Association haïtienne pour la maîtrise des eaux et des sols (ASSODLO) (haitian).
- CARECareCare may refer to:* Care , a 1980s alternative rock band from Liverpool* "Care", a 2001 episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit...
(US), - the Comité Protos Haïti (haitian),
- le Groupe de recherche et d’échanges technologiques (GRET) (French),
- Helvetas HelvetasHelvetas is a Swiss Association for International Cooperation. It was founded in 1955 as the first private organization for development co-operation in Switzerland...
(Swiss), - Inter Aide (French),
- International Action (US),
- OxfamOxfamOxfam is an international confederation of 15 organizations working in 98 countries worldwide to find lasting solutions to poverty and related injustice around the world. In all Oxfam’s actions, the ultimate goal is to enable people to exercise their rights and manage their own lives...
(UK and Canada), - the Pan American Development FoundationPan American Development FoundationThe Pan American Development Foundation is a non-governmental and non-political organization created in 1962 by the Organization of American States , the public sector and the private sector to focus on issues of pressing concern in the Western Hemisphere. PADF, a non-profit organization, has...
(linked to the Organisation of American States), and - World VisionWorld VisionWorld Vision, founded in the USA in 1950, is an evangelical relief and development organization whose stated goal is "to follow our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ in working with the poor and oppressed to promote human transformation, seek justice and bear witness to the good news of the Kingdom of...
(US).
Most NGOs are not specialized in water supply, but rather undertake community development across various sectors in specific localities. However, some NGOs - like International Action, Helvetas, ACF and GRET - focus on water supply and some also focus on sanitation.
Inter-American Development Bank The Inter-American Development Bank
Inter-American Development Bank
The Inter-American Development Bank is the largest source of development financing for Latin America and the Caribbean...
is the largest donor for water supply and sanitation in Haiti with on-going projects in Port-au-Prince (since 2010), secondary cities (since 1998) and in rural areas (since 2006) implemented by DINEPA. The Spanish government provides substantial grant funding for IDB water and sanitation projects in Haiti.
World Bank The World Bank supports two rural water supply and sanitation project implemented by DINEPA with total funding of US$10m and a series of community-driven development (CDD) projects that allow communities to choose the type of investment they want to undertake, including small-scale drinking water supply activities. The CDD project is implemented by community-based organizations with the close support of NGOs that work on behalf of the Haitian government.