Sustainable Sanitation in Haiti
Summary
In 2011, Sustainable Organic Integrated Livelihoods (SOIL) committed to provide ecological sanitation systems to more than 20,000 people living in Internally Displaced Person (IDP) camps and neighborhoods in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. In addition to the sanitation system, SOIL committed to scale waste treatment facilities with the potential to produce more than 1,000,000 gallons of compost per year. Simultaneously, the organization will develop a sustainable and replicable business model for household sanitation systems to promote livelihood opportunities and provide reliable service packages to community participants. This environmentally-sound, alternative approach will mitigate Port-au-Prince’s current sanitation crisis.
Approach
APPROACH AND METHODOLOGY
SOIL will pursue our commitment through the following activities:
– Maintaining emergency sanitation services in IDP camps in Port-au-Prince. Toilets which were installed in 2010 will be periodically repaired and SOIL will continue to provide collection services and oversight of maintenance.
– Piloting a household ecological sanitation project in Cite Soleil. For this project we will pilot several small portable toilet designs that will be tested in the homes of community leaders and SOIL staff. Following feedback from the users we will modify the design and expand the program.
– Expanding waste treatment capacity at our current compost site in Pernier which currently treats over 500 gallons of human waste per week. Site infrastructure will be maintained and improved upon to increase the capacity for waste treatment in Tabarre.
– Establishing a new site in Cite Soleil to treat the wastes from the household toilet project. SOIL will identify and develop a local site for composting in Cite Soleil near the neighborhood where the household toilet project will be implemented.
– Marketing compost produced at the sites and establishing partnerships with organizations involved in agriculture and reforestation.
– Developing a business plan for sustainable household sanitation system, including a waste treatment service package financed by user fees and compost sales.
– Working with the Haitian government through Direction Nationale de l’Eau Potable et de l’Assainissement (DINEPA) to establish minimum standards and a national strategy for ecological sanitation in Haiti.
– Providing monthly seminars and tour in both Kreyol and English for other organizations interested in pursuing this technology.
– Engage researchers from US universities to provide rigorous scientific, economic, and social analysis of project implementation.
IMPLEMENTATION, TIMELINE, AND DELIVERABLES
Maintaining emergency sanitation services in IDP camps: Provide public sanitation facilities to at least 14,500 people: May 2011 – May 2012
Piloting household ecological sanitation project: Install household toilets in 100 households in Cite Soleil: July 2011 – May 2012
Expanding waste treatment capacity in Port au Prince: Expand treatment capacity to treat waste from 30,000 people: May 2011 – April 2012
Marketing compost: Sell at least 250,000 gallons of compost in 2011: May 2011 – May 2012
Developing a business plan for household toilet project: Produce a business plan by September 2011: July 2011 – September 2011
Establishing standards and national strategy : National standards and strategy completed by December 2011: May 2011 – December 2011
Providing monthly EcoSan seminars and consulting: Provide seminars to at least 120 individuals and 60 organizations: May 2011 – May 2012
Evaluation and analysis of project implementation: Overall project will be analyzed by sanitation expert in April 2012: December 2011 – May 2012
Background
Prior to the January 12, 2010 earthquake, only 17% of the over 9 million people living in Haiti had access to improved sanitation facilities. In the months following the earthquake, the Haitian government and many international organizations responded to the escalating sanitation crisis, but there continued to be enormous gaps in sanitation coverage. Since before the earthquake, organizations were warning of a high risk for diarrhea and other water-borne diseases. This prediction proved valid with the outbreak of cholera in October 2010 that has already claimed over 4,500 lives and sickened many hundreds of thousands more. The potential for a sustained and devastating presence of the disease is extremely high given the low level of access to basic sanitation services and the absence of viable waste treatment solutions.
A key concern, and one that is often overlooked, is that many of the toilets that were originally installed as part of the emergency effort have no sustainable maintenance or waste treatment plan. They are now falling into disrepair and are being abandoned as the organizations that installed them are leaving the country or reprioritizing project activities.
As an organization that has focused on environmentally-sound waste disposal, SOIL has serious reservations about the current focus on traditional sanitation interventions. Pit latrines are subject to flooding and structural collapse, which could lead to fecal contamination of water supplies. The need for constant de-sludging of raised latrines and port-a-potties also poses a serious problem, as neither the government of Haiti nor any international organization has developed a proper waste treatment site to receive the large amounts of human waste being collected. The current main site in Port-au-Prince, Trutier, receives over 40,000 gallons of waste daily that is dumped into large unlined pits at or below the water level in an area directly adjacent to the Port-au-Prince bay and large population centers.
There is a need for alternative, environmentally-sound and more long-term approaches to the sanitation crisis. One such approach is ecological sanitation (EcoSan), where human wastes are converted to valuable hummus-rich compost.
Progress Update
August 2017
SOIL successfully provided dignified emergency ecological sanitation services to more than 20,000 people living in IDP camps from 2010 to 2015. The last emergency toilets were decommissioned in 2015, when SOIL transitioned to developing a social business (EkoLakay) for the provision of household sanitation services.
SOIL celebrated reaching 1,000 EkoLakay toilets in Haiti in January 2017, and SOIL continues to receive a steady stream of inquiries for their service, indicating a strong market for further expansion. SOIL also made significant progress on the construction of a new temporary compost site in Titanyen (serving the Port-au-Prince region), and celebrated the official opening of this site at an inauguration event in early December 2016. The site is now receiving and safely treating all wastes from the EkoLakay project. SOIL is now treating over 50 tons of human waste per month at their waste treatment facilities outside Cap-Haitien and in Titanyen, and they expect this to increase as their EkoLakay service continues to increase.
As SOIL is committed to developing durable, sustainable solutions to the sanitation crisis in Haiti, this work is continuing beyond the timeframe of this closed commitment.
Partnership Opportunities
SOIL still needs to raise an additional $300000 to complete its commitment and is seeking donors interested in market based approaches to sanitation.
SOIL is also seeking business advisors with experience in creating market based services and franchise development.