Blog #7 Clean Water Crisis in Haiti 9/12/12

        Two very devoted professional water operators living in Haiti are fighting and working extremely hard to fix the terrible water situation that Haitians live with every day. These two men have to have a full time job to accompany their efforts in Haiti because working on the water system provides no pay.  They both feel that they would rather suffer from the great amount of work they are doing every day than to know nothing is being done to make clean water available to those in need. In the past half-century, conditions of water cleanliness got significantly better when foreign donations were made to install water system. What could be the problem then? It is said that after this initial generous donation, the donors do not keep up with sending money to run the systems in the years to come. In result of these abandoned water systems, 50% of them have stopped working, leaving many villagers once again with unsanitary water. Engineers are making great effort to create a private enterprise of these water systems so that they will run, be maintained, and hopefully make profit.  

        In reference to the donations made to install water systems, these donors are very generous because $50 billion dollars had been spent in one decade.  However, as generous as these donations are, they are just money down the drain. Without maintaining water systems for the years after they are installed, the efforts are pointless in helping the quality of Haitians health. We need people like the two men referenced in the article, Antoine Jean Narol and Marc Antoine Castel, who are truly devoted to helping the quality of lives and not just out to look they have done a good deed in the eyes of the world.  The World Bank his recognized these efforts and has given a grant of 10 million dollars to help the hopeful enterprise. With more efforts like these, Haiti’s, and many other suffering country’s water could be as clean as yours and mine. 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/in-rural-haiti-looking-for-a-way-to-make-clean-water-sustainable/2012/10/09/33582536-b4e0-11e1-9e4c-5a6a137d65e1_story.html