The Lambi Fund of Haiti

Spring 2009 Newsletter — Contents

Clean Water Project: A Final Report

The Women's Association of Tet Kole - Northwest (KFTK-NW) wanted to build five community cisterns. This project was developed as a response to needs identified by local Haitian women, and has strengthened democracy and built community.

KFTK-NW is one of the largest and best organized women's groups in Haiti. KFTK-NW has a total of 600 women's groups and each one of them has five to 15 members.

The group wanted collective cisterns in five communities: Kalik, Kolombye, Dityet, Savways, and Lakoma. Cisterns increase the supply of potable water, thus decreasing water borne disease and improving children's health. Community cisterns also help those responsible for obtaining water in rural Haiti: women and girls.

Lambi Fund provided the inputs (sand, gravel, cement, iron, binding wire, PVC, sheets of aluminum, steel, wood, plywood, transportation) needed to build the cisterns. Lambi Fund provided follow-up and evaluation on a regular basis. Organization members provided the labor, water, and gravel to construct the cisterns.

Project Launch

KFTK-NW leaders and Lambi Fund discussed the overall strategy of the project and KFTK-NW created the management committee and subcommittees to manage the project.

Members of the KFTK-NW and Lambi Fund staff met with PlanConsult, the organization hired to build the cisterns.

They determined that four cisterns would be located in the Reymon area because residents had to walk 5-6 hours to find water.

Reymon was selected even though delivering construction materials to the area was to be very difficult due to the poor road conditions.

Training

Organization members attended the training, and all participants indicated they learned a great deal about cistern construction, water quality, hygiene and health.

An additional training on water purification will be held for the organization members.

Construction of Cisterns

Heavy rains impacted the Reymon area, and it was difficult to transport the materials to the four project sites. But because of the members' commitment to the project, the engineers and contractors received all the needed materials at the construction sites to begin the projects.

The financing and construction of the four cisterns was completed on time. The original plan included a fifth cistern of 10,500 gallons at the organization's Jean Marie Vincent Center in Lakoma.

However, based on a study of the terrain and the building structure and roof, the organization and Plan-Consult modified the original plan to include two smaller cisterns.

All of the cisterns have been completed and are working well. They are filled with water from recent rains in January and February.

Conclusions

Because women are the ones responsible for obtaining water in rural Haitian communities, the KFTK-NW project beneficiaries are women and girls. Instead of spending hours walking to a far away water source, women can spend more time on other activities when a water source is located within their community.

Girls can attend school rather than spending the day walking long distances to get water. Community cisterns decrease water borne disease and improve children's health.

Instead of spending money on sending their children to the doctor, women can spend it on their children's education.

The residents of Reymon and Lakoma said that the cisterns have brought great relief to the areas. Previously water was scarce in the two communities and residents had to walk long distances to obtain water, sometimes as far away as 15 kilometers.

KFTK members stated that people are coming from far away to look at the cisterns. Neighboring communities have already asked Lambi Fund to help them build their own cisterns.

More cisterns are needed in Reymon to meet the needs of the entire community. The two cisterns in Lakoma have resolved the water problems at the KFTK center.

The Lambi Fund received a letter from residents of Reymon that stated:

• The cisterns are capturing water to the satisfaction of residents.
• Reymon residents are very grateful to the Lambi Fund because they now have easy access to water.
• Children's health will improve in the long run.
• Lambi Fund's support enabled KFTK-NW members to improve their capacity to manage projects.

Challenges

The biggest challenges faced were due to rising costs of materials, fuel and transportation; a lack of needed rocks in the area to complete the project; and recent hurricanes.