Composting Facilities are critical for Haiti

Composting Facilities are critical for Haiti

Currently Haiti as well as Dominican Republic are in the midst of Cholera crisis.  While this bacterial infection was caused by improper sewage dumping from UN peace keepers, it is causing massive destruction on Hispaniola.  Many people end up drinking contaminated water, which increases the illness.

Proper handling of raw human sewage will prevent this situation from spreading further.  Given that there are virtually no sewage treatment plants in Haiti, this can quickly spiral out of control.  Composting human waste is the best thing that Haiti can do.  When you look at the massive cost of building a waste treatment plant, the cost of laying down sewage pipes, the lack of water, having a large scale waste treatment plant for Haiti is not in the cards.  This may change over time, but in the immediate future, composting treatment plant(s) is a solution.  These facilities are inexpensive to build, can use dry material like plentiful Vetiver, and be built in every city in Haiti.

Composting Facilities and Bathrooms

These facilities can be built of any size and from stone, cinder block, wood, etc.  Also these immediate bathrooms provide jobs and workers have to change out bins, and also take them to treatment plants.  Treatment plants as shown below can be built using wooden pallets and dry material such as Vetiver for cover material.

Inside of the Composting and Bathroom Facilities

These facilities don’t need water, and can accept regular toilet tissue and female sanitary napkins.  In the bottom photo you can see the dry material that would be used to cover waste after someone uses the bathroom.

The inside of these composting bathrooms are nice as well and if done correctly lack offensive smells and no bugs. 

Hand washing stations can also be outside of these facilities as well, or simple washing sinks can be inside of each bathroom.

Waste Treatment Plants

 These types of waste treatment plants can be built anywhere and can help buildup soil loss in Haiti, improving farm crops, and rebuilding the forests.

Even more facilities can be simple or complex as seen below.

 Even without walls, you can still build have a human composting facility.  If you want a more expensive facility you can also have one that is more discreet.

This is the way of the future for Haiti.  It is already going on in some areas of Haiti with S.O.I.L, but that isn’t enough.  Places like La Gonave can benefit greatly from having these same facilities. 

Go Gonave!