The regional office of drinking water and sanitation in the North (OREPA-NORD) intends to strive to make drinking water available to the inhabitants of the city of Cap-Haitien and its surroundings. Hence the implementation of a project under the program to strengthen the provision of drinking water and sanitation in the region since early 2017.
Funded by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the Spanish Cooperation and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), this project, which was to begin this time around July 2021 (according to the donor in question), includes the axis of the environmental and social cell, CES, at the level of OREPA-North through community mobilizers and environmentalists. It was not until January 2022 that a new phase of the project effectively began in certain neighborhoods of Cap-Haitian.
Thus, as part of the program to strengthen drinking water supply in the country, the National Directorate of Drinking Water and Sanitation (DINEPA), through the Regional Offices of Drinking Water and Sanitation (OREPA), has, for some time, initiated the program entitled “PROJET EAU ET ASSAINISSEMENT.
In the North Department, the said project is already being carried out since January 2022 and even before at the level of OREPA-NORD, according to the concerned donor, supports the engineer Pierre Bernadin Poisson who acts as director.
Workers, already at work, continue to survey several areas in the second city of the country to reach more people. Results are already being seen, says engineer Pierre Bernadin Poisson. However, the project is facing some small problems.
It will need more awareness and probably the involvement of social agents recognized as environmentalists or community mobilizers, as required in the project’s wording.
However, it should be noted that these works in the North Department have started at different times depending on the international organization that is financing. For the Inter-American Development Bank, for example, other areas in Cap-Haitien will be affected from July 2022, says engineer Poisson, noting that no less than eight companies are involved in the execution of the project several years ago.
Some beneficiaries of the project are quite satisfied with the results, despite everything, after receiving a connection to their homes, for the most part, having been deprived of drinking water for at least two years.
This project, spread over several periods, intends to allow the population to have access to drinking water through large-scale sanitation works. It is in this sense that it was decided to integrate within OREPA NORD a project management team called “execution unit” within which there is an environmental and social cell that will ensure the environmental and social aspects (CES). Community mobilizers and environmentalists are supposed to be the executors of the ESC in order to meet the expectations of the population as much as possible.
