I am sorry...I warned you all when I started this that I am terrible at keeping up with these things and well...it's true. Here is an article I wrote for my work colleagues back in Vancouver. Hopefully it gives some insight into what I have been doing over the past 4 months. Wow, I can't believe I will be back in Canada in two weeks - unbelievable how quickly the time has passed!
__________________________________________________
On January 12, 2010, a magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck southern Haiti, with its epicenter located 10 miles southwest of the capital, Port-au-Prince. The earthquake killed an estimated 316,000 people, displaced over 1 million and affected approximately 2 million others. Merely 10 months later the country was then struck with an outbreak of cholera resulting in more than 485,000 reported cholera cases, nearly 260,000 hospitalizations, and more than 6,700 deaths. Before the earthquake, nearly 3000 non-governmental organizations (NGO) were working in Haiti – after the earthquake, some reports have estimated that that number increased to over 10,000 NGOs.
 |
| Presidential Palace (January 2012) |
 |
| Typical earthquake damage |
January 12, 2012 marked the two-year anniversary of the earthquake. Despite the massive response, over half a million people continue to live in “temporary” camps and while rebuilding is underway, the city is still inundated with earthquake debris and a lack of basic services and supplies; according to an October 2011 report by UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, nearly 1 in 2 people in Haiti are “food insecure”. In addition, with the shift from emergency response to recovery, reconstruction and development, many humanitarian agencies have shifted their focus and funding to other crises and events throughout the world.
 |
| IDP camp in Port-au-Prince |
With this reality, as well as a newly formed government, change continues to take place and as with any disaster, there are often opportunities to make positive changes. In Haiti, it appears that the earthquake and cholera outbreak have triggered an important shift in regards to the management of wastewater in the country.
Following the earthquake, critical water and sewer infrastructure in the capital city of Port-au-Prince was severely damaged. With the use of thousands of portable latrines in the camps and no wastewater treatment facilities, liquid waste was being disposed in ditches, canals and other areas throughout the city. In order to provide some manner of protection to the internally displaced people living in and around Port-au-Prince, a project was initiated by the UN and World Vision to dig an emergency lagoon in the city’s solid waste dump located in Truitier, just northeast of the city. The lagoon was intended to temporarily receive wastewater (approximately 3ML/week) until permanent containment, separation, and treatment lagoons could be established in the second half of 2011.
In September of 2011, the first ever wastewater treatment facility (a series of lagoons) in Haiti became operational (and a second facility is currently under construction). With this development, the temporary liquid waste lagoon in the Truitier landfill could be decommissioned. I was asked to join World Vision Haiti as a project manager to facilitate this closure.
The project is actually quite similar to water/ wastewater projects in Canada: hiring a technical consulting firm to develop options and devise a methodology, manage a project team, consult with stakeholders, obtain the necessary government approvals, hire a contractor to execute the work and of course, look after all the requisite paperwork and reporting requirements.
There are also some significant differences…
The lagoon is located in the City’s only landfill which is located on the outer edge of Cite Soleil, the city’s largest slum which has been called "the most dangerous place on Earth" by the United Nations. There is a large community of people (and farm animals) that actually live in the landfill. These families subsist by salvaging materials (glass, metal, plastic and other recyclable or re-sellable materials) from the landfill. As could be expected, these extremely difficult living conditions have created a very strong survivalist culture and until earlier this year political protests including blockading access and kidnappings of NGO workers entering this area were a very common occurrence.
 |
| Salvage activities at the dump |
 |
| Shantytown community living in the dump |
 |
| Tire burning to extract metals |
 |
| Goats at the dump (called "cabrit" in Haitian Kreyol) |
 |
| Pigs at the dump |
 |
| Salvage activities |
 |
| More pigs |
The landfill is owned and operated by a different government agency from the one that is responsible for water and wastewater in Haiti - and to put it lightly, some key individuals in these two agencies do not see eye to eye on many things, especially the location of the new wastewater facility and the closure of the emergency lagoon. Add to that the fact that the government in Haiti has only recently been re-established and most roles and responsibilities are in the process of being defined and revised. To further complicate matters, there are numerous NGOs and other agencies (such as UNICEF, UNOPS, WHO, CDC, World Bank, International Red Cross, etc.) interested in participating in decisions regarding the lagoon at Truitier given its storied history, not the least of which being that is was the location for liquid waste disposal during the cholera outbreak. Thankfully, there was an active and well organized emergency response WASH Cluster which brought most of these players to the same table at least once a month to discuss coordination of water, sanitation and hygiene activities.
 |
| Truitier Liquid Waste Lagoon |
There was also the learning curve of working in a developing country for a large, international NGO. Working for the regional government in Vancouver prepared me very well to adapt quickly to the multitude of business systems and processes (read: forms, approvals, reports and more forms, approvals and reports). Obviously as an agency that has to be transparent and accountable for every donated dollar that is spent, World Vision has many checks and balances that are in place, but with only 3 months to execute a highly politicized, technically challenging project, this was definitely my least favorite part of the first few weeks in Haiti.
 |
| Working at the site |
 |
| Boot disinfection station |
 |
| Sample testing 'in the shade' |
 |
| Workers at the site in PPE |
One of the more exciting parts of the work is the opportunity to meet a variety of fascinating people, often entirely unexpectedly. Such as the morning I was given 15 minutes notice for a meeting with the Canadian Ambassador and the heads of all the Canadian NGOs working in Haiti!
Quite possibly the biggest difference is the fact that most of my day is spent working in French and trying to understand and learn a few phrases of the local language – Haitian Kreyol. Although many of my Haitian colleagues speak both French and Kreyol (and some also speak English), many Haitians speak only Kreyol and understanding it is a must if you are having any interactions with local communities or are attending Haitian social events.
 |
| Discussing project |
 |
| Contractor site visit |
 |
| Engineers on my team |
Rather than get into all the details of the project to date, suffice it to say that we have been able to make great strides on the project (both technically and politically) and have issued, awarded and completed one contract on the site and the second contract is underway and expected to be completed within a month's time.
___________________________________________________________________
Unlike many of my expat colleagues, I am very lucky in that I get to spend most of my days out in the field interacting with my Haitian colleagues as well as other people (both Haitian and expat) living in and around Port au Prince. Although the country is so desperately in need of change and I have seen so many sad and desperate things, I feel a very real connection with the community here and I know that I will miss it dearly when I leave.
If you would like to support relief and development efforts in Haiti, here are some good agencies that are still actively working in Haiti:
World Vision Canada
Doctors Without Borders
International Rescue Committee
UNICEF
_________________________________________________________________________
