SANITATION IN SMALL TOWN HAITI ©

At home in Canada we are blessed to be able to take so much that we have for granted. We live in one of the wealthiest countries on the planet and many believe that all of the things we have around us are ours by right. We are entitled to have these things: electricity 24/7, potable water, universal health care, free schooling in the primary and secondary grades, paved roads and the rule of law. I could go on to include other things such as social welfare, meaningful employment, unemployment insurance, public housing, freedom of religion, solid financial institutions but I won’t.

So it comes as a shock to our first world sensibilities when we discover that most in the third world have few if any of these things that we “know” are our birth right.

There is one item in my home that I always took for granted. After all everyone needs one and therefore they have one, don’t they? In fact, I have three in my house and there are only two people living here. What am I going on about? A toilet, a commode, crapper, powder room, by whatever name, a lavatory or bathroom is a necessary part of all our lives.

So it comes as a shock to discover, that ain’t necessarily so.

If you live in a one or two room hut made of branches, palm leafs and scrap metal and cook over a couple of rocks in the alley outside of your door, you probably don’t have a facility for you know what. Many in Haiti live just so.

So what do they do you ask, after all we all must do daily. A five gallon plastic pail with a plastic bag inside is the most common in our village. But what do you do with the bag? It’s not as if you can just throw it over the fence or into the river or the ocean. Oh right, that’s exactly what happens. In fact in one nearby village, the people there bypass the pail and bag and go direct to the nearby dry riverbed. One has to be careful walking on that popular shortcut.

It doesn’t require a membership in Mensa to figure out the need; a latrine would come in handy here.

Our good friend Nixon Gabriel and de facto mayor of the village had the answer but like most people in Haiti, no money to do anything about it. If he had the money he would build a number of latrines to help the poorest of the poor. Each latrine would be divided into sections for 4 families, each with a door and a lock for privacy. This would provide the necessary and restore some dignity to their lives. He required money for cement blocks to line the pit and for the exterior walls, wood for doors and sheet metal for the roof. The recipients of the latrine would dig the hole for the cost of a meal. A local mason and his helper would lay the block and a carpenter and his helper would install the roof and doors and four families would finally be able to do what must be done, in privacy. All materials and labour could be found in the community so such a project would be an all-round winner for everyone. Locations would be selected by Nixon in consultation with the residents who had to agree on the site and also agree to dig the pit.

Note the antenna doubling as a ladder

While the wood, sheet metal and hardware all have to be brought in from the city, the blocks are made right in the village. Each block is hand made in a steel mold using a mixture of sand and cement. Generally, there is too much sand and not enough cement and this results in a block that is not as sound or strong as it should be but for our purposes they are ok. The sand and cement are mixed together with water using a shovel as they don’t have a cement mixer. This mixture is packed into the mold and pounded with the back of the shovel to compact it. Then the mold is shaken out and the newly formed block is set in the sun to dry and harden. At this site perhaps 150 to 200 blocks are made each day, generally in the mornings as it becomes too hot late

Interior and exterior walls laid out on the floor 

r in the day to work in the sun. Nixon would purchase the block for the pit and they would be delivered along with sand and cement for the mortar.

Community Builders International  agreed to fund the construction of the first two units and Nixon was requested to select the sites.

Walls are up ready for the carpenter

Once the first sites were selected, the work began. Each pit was dug approximately 20 feet deep and 6 feet square. When the required depth was reached, the mason and his helper line the pit with blocks up to ground level. Some pits are easy dig and others are very difficult, depending on the soil. Sand or clay is shoveled rapidly and extracted from the pit by buckets at the end of a rope while others are more difficult as the site

 
might be solid limestone. Those pits took many days of hard labour using sledge hammers and chisels. Next came the floor also of block and rebar and once that had cured for a day, the exterior and interior walls were built on that.  Now it was the turn of the carpenter and his helper to build and install the roof and doors from wood and corrugated sheet metal. Now the latrine was finished and keys for the doors were given to each of the 4 families involved. A happy day for all.

Nixon Gabriel and a new latrine in MacDonald, Haiti

 Over the next three years with funds raised in Canada the village got latrines for 48 families. Unfortunately the costs escalated from $500 US to almost $1000 each as the materials increased in cost, whether from inflation or greed or some combination of both still remains to be determined.

There is a need for more latrines and of course, with that, the need to raise the funds. So if you are feeling “flush” – pun intended, donations marked “Latrines in Haiti” can be sent to:

Community Builders International Group, 404-999 Canada Place Way, Vancouver, BC V6C 3E2

Tel 604-879-4645

Email: info@community builders.ca

Or check us out at http://www.communitybuilders.ca/

Receipts for income tax purposes will be sent for all donations over $10.00. 100% of all donations marked “latrines” in Haiti will be used in the construction of latrines in the village of MacDonald.