Let's Build Gonave, Haiti!

La Gonave lacks water, much like many parts of Haiti, there is no water.  Ironically there is a tremendous amount of water surrounding the country.  For the most part, the sea water doesn't help the country solve the dire water conditions. One major way to fighting hunger and chronic drought is to put desalination plants on La Gonave that can be powered by solar power. Systems like the one above can produce 12,000 gallons of water per day.  These systems can serve the citizens drinking water needs.  Given that many parts of the land on La Gonave has some pollution issues from raw sewage, or bad terrain, building a small system that can pull water in from the ocean, and then pump that fresh water into a holding system is one of the best ways to have long term water solutions. Building large reservoirs in the city of Anse-a-Galets would be critical in addressing the water issue for citizens.  In fact many American cities, such as Seattle used water reservo...

Early on in my blog writing I mentioned building reservoirs to help with Gonave's water troubles.  Wells serve a small purpose but a larger more stable piece of infrastructure would be reservoirs.  Much of the rain that falls on Gonave isn't captured, and just runs into the ocean or absorbed into the soil.  Once absorbed, wells are usually dug by NGO's.  While this is a great thing, and we encourage it, building wells is places a bandaid on a bullet wound.  Reservoirs provide a stable source of water, which can be treated, and then supplied to nearby homes and factories.  Even building a 5 acre reservoir that are a few feet deep will provide a large source of water.  Water collected from homes, buildings, etc, can then be diverted in special channels to help fill up the reservoir.  Along with the water conservation efforts I mentioned in a previous post, water will be less of a concern and issue.  When you couple this with using natura...