Series of Concern Water Projects, Today from Haiti
Thursday, 24 March 2005
Series of Concern Water Projects, Today from Haiti
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Wednesday 22nd March was World Water Day. According to the UN, over 1 billion people have no access to clean drinking water. For the next week we are going to take a look at different water and sanitation projects that Concern is working at, and the impact it has on people’s lives.
Today we'll lok at the work that Concern is doing in Haiti.
Concern has been working with the local community in St Martin since 1996 to assist them in attaining and sustaining a reasonable standard to living with particular regard to water, sanitation and improved health. The provision of potable water at affordable prices has been one of the projects funded by Concern working in conjunction with local water committees and the local water authority, CAMEP. Four water fountains have been built in the districts of Delmas 4 and Tokyo - each one supplied by water towers with water distributed by CAMEP at certain times and on certain days of the week.
Madame Lucie Beaujé (pictured above) lives in the Tokyo district of St Martin. She is about 50 years old and lives in a small, one room 'house' off a dark inner alleyway of the labyrinthine 'bidonville' that is St Martin. She lives with her ageing mother, four children and three grandchildren. She is pictures outside her home with two of her grandchildren: Chélot, six years old, and Magdalene, 12 months old. Her husband died about ten years ago and since that time she has been alone in providing for her family. Their daily consumption of water is about six or seven buckets (of five gallons) for cooking, washing clothes and bathing. She currently pays between 2 and 4 gourdes per bucket from a private company that sells water to the St Martin community. Her minimum daily spend on water, therefore, is 12 gourdes and sometimes it is as high as 24 gourdes.
With the construction of the Concern-funded water fountains in Tokyo she and other local residents will only pay 35 cents per bucket bringing her total daily spend on water to 2 gourdes. "Water is everything for us -it is life, without it we cannot survive, and yet it is so expensive. I do not earn enough money at present to buy the amount I need each day at 4 gourdes. If the new water fountains provide water at 35 cents then I will be very happy. It will be a great relief and the money saved can be used for many other things". As the sole income provider, Lucie assembles kerosene lamps and sells them to the residents of St Martin. With the savings on the cost of water she plans to increase her sales of lamps and with the increase in profits from her business "I will be able to buy more food for the children".
