Physical Health Haiti Project #17164

Expanding Climate-Positive Sanitation in Haiti

by SOIL

Project Report | Jan 7, 2025
More Resilience: SOIL's Emergency Flood Response

By Alyson Lucas | Project Leader

Flood Collection Route

As households and communities grapple with the aftermath of intense flooding in Cap-Haïtien, SOIL’s team has risen to the challenge of ensuring access to safe sanitation for EkoLakay clients, despite many obstacles.

Early this month, the northern coast of Haiti was lashed by torrential rain. By December 5, what began as localized flooding quickly escalated. Cap-Haïtien’s streets, usually teeming with life and pedestrians, became unrecognizable as floodwaters swamped low-lying neighborhoods. The mayor of Cap-Haïtien called on the national government to declare a state of emergency.

“This is the worst flooding we’ve seen in recent years, and it’s much worse than the 2021 floods,” said SOIL’s HR Director.

For our on-the-ground staff, the situation was a reminder of their central role in the community. Our team quickly activated the emergency response protocol with adaptability, courage, and a great desire to help. SOIL’s staff waded through waist-deep water and braved submerged streets to ensure that sanitation services continued without interruption. Even as floodwaters damaged their homes, many team members chose to stay on the job, prioritizing the needs of the community.

"The flooding has affected not just our clients, but our own ability to work,” said SOIL's Director of Operations.

He reported to the team on Monday that extensive damage to roads and vehicles has significantly complicated waste collection efforts, and the disruption will make collection logistics challenging for months to come. To add to the difficulties, many of SOIL’s four-wheel-drive vehicles—critical for navigating the flooded streets—sustained damage, requiring costly repairs.

Despite the obstacles, our team has adapted our collection strategy, utilizing collection points located on higher ground and arranging for clients to bring waste containers to the collection trucks when possible. Despite the obstacles, our team has adapted our collection strategy, utilizing collection points located on higher ground and arranging for clients to bring waste containers to the collection trucks when possible.

“We’ve been working from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day, trying to get as many clients served as we can,” shared our EkoLakay manager.

With the floodwaters, access to communication has also been severely disrupted. Internet and phone services have been intermittent at best, and many clients have been unable to charge their phones, making it harder to coordinate logistics and communicate essential updates. In the absence of reliable communication, SOIL’s team has reached out to clients individually, checking on their well-being, assessing damage to toilets, and offering advice on managing sanitation in flooded conditions.

During emergencies, SOIL’s goal is to continue serving 90% of our clients within a two-week period, and we remain committed to that target, even under these challenging conditions.

This storm is a reminder that container-based sanitation offers a resilient and sustainable sanitation solution during flooding. Despite the increased challenges, Ekolakay toilets remain operational and safe for use–unlike many other sanitation options in Cap-Haïtien. Families relying on pit latrines face unsafe and unsanitary conditions as the water table overflows, rendering them unusable. In contrast, EkoLakay toilets securely seal waste, preventing harmful exposure to families and their surroundings. This system ensures that waste is safely collected and transported to a proper treatment site, reducing the risk of waterborne diseases.

Even areas with plumbing infrastructure, both in Cap-Haïtien and globally, are not immune to sewage and wastewater overflows during heavy rains. Flooded waterways anywhere can create serious health risks. For example, after hurricane season in Florida this year–an area with far more resources than those available in Northern Haiti–many residents faced contamination issues with their tap water. Storm surges breached water reservoirs, introducing salt water and wastewater into drinking supplies, which led to concerns about quality. Container based sanitation offers a resilient solution to safeguarding public health in the face of such climate shocks.

While Haiti remains especially vulnerable to upheavals like natural disasters, it is equally clear that such adversities have fostered remarkable resilience and resourcefulness. SOIL has continuously adapted and innovated in the face of crisis, driven by the unyielding determination and enduring spirit of our team and the Haitian people.

“We have a duty to provide safe sanitation, and we will continue to do so,” said SOIL Executive Director, “This is not just about waste management—it’s about public health, dignity, and resilience in the face of climate change.”

Although the challenges are immense, the resolve of SOIL’s team is stronger. We remain committed to our mission, knowing that community resilience is the foundation upon which we build a better future for the areas we serve in Haiti.

Flooded street in Cap-Haitien

EkoLakay collection during flooding

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Sep 11, 2024
SOIL's Composting Anchors Sanitation in Haiti

By Alyson Lucas | Project Leader

SOIL Grinder

Image: SOIL recently acquired a grinder to reduce the bagasse that is used as bulking agent for composting.

SOIL was recently featured in a leading publication that showcases innovations in recycling and sustainable waste management. The article, Composting Anchors Sanitation in Haiti, authored by a zero waste expert and SOIL Advisory Board Member, provides an in-depth look at SOIL’s ongoing efforts and latest advancements.

The article discusses everything from the physical layout of SOIL’s composting site to our ambitious goals of expanding EkoLakay sanitation services to 10% of Cap-Haitien’s population, including the investments and funding required to make it happen. As a friend of SOIL for over a decade, the author truly captures the essence of our journey, the challenges we've faced, and the excitement we feel about the future.

Additionally, SOIL’s impact extends beyond ecological sanitation and composting. Guided by the dedication of our local staff and executive team, SOIL is driving positive behavior change and building acceptance of sustainable sanitation solutions within the communities we serve. “Some 83% of SOIL’s clients have never had a private toilet before, but most aspire to have one like their wealthier neighbors,” Rich reports. “The organization also finds that having the toilets they distribute in their own office and staff members’ homes is important for promoting their use.”

While SOIL’s impact may be modest amidst the many hurdles and challenges we face working in a fragile state like Haiti, our vision remains bold: we strive for a future where Haitians continue to take the lead in building their communities and championing safe and dignified access to sanitation.

You can read the whole article here Read more >>

Links:

https://www.biocycle.net/composting-anchors-sanitation-access-in-haiti/

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May 22, 2024
SOIL Expands its EkoLakay Operations into Karakol

By Christine Simek | Development Director

Sanitation is SOIL’s business and our passion, and we understand that the provision of immediate sanitation access is all the more critical at this moment in Haiti’s history, given the ongoing and complex humanitarian crisis that continues to unfold. Despite unremitting challenges, the SOIL team has continued its vital work in Cap-Haitien, ensuring that our sanitation service remains uninterrupted for our current EkoLakay customers. We have also been working to significantly grow the service over the past several months, despite consistent challenges. We are proud to say that we currently have 2,843 EkoLakay toilets installed, servicing over 17,000 Haitians – an increase of more than 300 households since the beginning of this year.

As part of our Results-Based Financing initiative, the SOIL sales team recently launched our EkoLakay expansion efforts into Karakòl, a commune in the Trou-du-Nord Arrondissement in the Nord-Est department, just east of Cap-Haitien where SOIL has not previously had an operational presence. The results have been impressive and encouraging – the team has installed a record 158 toilets since the beginning of March – providing 950 individuals who previously didn’t have access to a toilet with access to improved sanitation. Utilizing findings from our baseline surveys the team prioritized the most vulnerable households in high-risk flood zones, and was met with a lot of interest and a high demand for toilets. In the coming weeks, they will continue to focus their expansion efforts with additional targeted marketing and sales pushes in the neighborhood.

It is impossible to overstate the effect that the protracted political instability, increasing food insecurity, and endemic violence is having on the lives and minds of Haitian citizens. Imagine not knowing where your child’s next meal is coming from. Imagine being surrounded by worry and dread, confined to a system of inadequate health care and educational opportunities, inaccessible infrastructure, systematic violations of human rights, and severe energy shortages. And then imagine that daily life without a toilet.

The shame and vulnerability that comes with the lack of a dignified sanitation option is never eased or truly normalized. Access to sanitation is not only intricately tied to human dignity, but is also recognized by the United Nations as a human right. Today and everyday SOIL is proud to be doing essential work that promotes human dignity. Continuing on each day, particularly during this exceptionally complex and arduous moment in time, is a testament to the ingenuity and skill of our dedicated staff and the steadfastness of our local and global partners, and is an expression of profound hope.

To remain hopeful in bad times is motivated by the reality that human history is not only a history of despair, but also one of compassion, courage, kindness and love. It is this kind of hope that gives us the energy to move towards a greater, more unified good, even in the simplest of ways, with the understanding that it's the aggregate of all those small acts of kindness, of magnanimity combined with the tenacity to persist, that can change the world.

We will continue working to spread hope, health and dignity, one toilet installation, one individual and one household at a time. Please continue to hold Haiti in your hearts.

Links:

Visit our website for more information!

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