2 for 1: Safe Drinking Water & Planting Trees

Project Needs and Beneficiaries

Almost 1/3 of Haitians have no access to safe drinking water, resulting in disease and a high death rate for children. Haiti is described by the U.N. as one of the most degraded countries in the world. Without trees to protect the land, flooding from hurricanes destroys homes, lives, farmland and ecosystems. Our poorest neighbor in the Western Hemisphere needs an urgent plan to plant trees and provide safe water for 600 peasants in the village of Chato.

Activities Peasants in Chato asked Lambi to help build a network of 10 water cisterns. They also want to reforest the area with 100,000 trees. They will provide the labor and, with your help, Lambi will provide construction materials, training and seedlings

Project Update

Cisterns Having built 5 cisterns last year, Konbit -2004 has completed the construction of 5 additional cisterns. Today all 10 cisterns have been built as planned. The last five cisterns were constructed at a cost of $4286 per unit, a significant increase caused by the rising price of materials.

Workshops On August 8-9, 2008 a workshop was conducted on water purification. About 30 members of the organization were in attendance.

Nurseries The organization is ready to launch the second phase of its reforestation efforts. About 50,000 seedlings will be produced by December 2008 and the remaining 25,000 will be produced in early 2009.

Project Impact:

The cisterns brought great relief to the community of Chato. In addition to providing access to potable drinking water, the cisterns brought great relief to Chato’s young girls who traditionally have to walk long distances to get water and are unable to go to school.