Drink Water for Life

For information about why we chose to focus our Drink Water for Life campaign on Haiti, click here.

Zabriko is a mountain area located directly west of Hinche, the capital of the Central Plateau.  It is one of the most remote and poorest areas in all of Haiti, just a 40 kilometers from the mountainous border between Haiti and the Dominican Republic.  It can be reached only by means of hiking up a steep footpath after reaching the end of an exceedingly rough road.

The Zabriko project is being undertaken by the Peasant Movement of Papay (MPP), an organization composed of farmer collectives throughout the Central Plateau.  MPP had provided community water supplies for many communities before international aid for Haiti dried up in the early 1990s.  Given the renewed availability of funding provided through Drink Water for Life campaigns, MPP is rejuvenating its community water program and has hired a new water engineer to direct that program.

The Zabriko community water and sanitation project will be undertaken in four phases. 

Phase I of the project was completed in December 2009.  It captured of water from a pure spring high in the mountains, which was piped and distributed at three community water taps, one at the public school/market area, one near the Catholic church, and one higher up the mountain for families that used the spring before the project.  This project serves more than 2000 people and cost approximately $10,000 cash, funded by 1st Congregational UCC of Salem OR, Faith UCC of Indianapolis IN, All Peoples UCC of Bend OR, and the 2009 5th grade graduates of Sumpter Elementary School in Salem OR.  The remainder of the project resources were technical expertise contributed by the Peasant Movement of Papay (MPP) and the in-kind labor contributed by the people of Zabriko.  The area above the spring is well forested and will be protected from contamination.  Through the leadership of the farmer collectives in the area, the community will hold elections for members of a water committee to assure protection of the source and maintenance of the system.  The farmer collectives in the area provide on-going health promotion education, including hygiene education.

At least 3000 people, and perhaps as many as 6000 people, from the surrounding area are likely to seek water from the Zabriko community taps.  Although the water will be plentiful in the wet season, the spring will not be adequate to meet the needs during the dry season.  Also, it will take 1 - 3 hours roundtrip for women and children to fetch this clean water.  So Phase II of the project will involve installation of four similar cap systems in Regales and three other adjoining communities.  MPP is preparing a detailed cost estimate for these systems during the winter 2010; however, the cash required for these system is expected to be roughly $25,000. 

 Phase III will install a series of composting toilets to provide improved sanitation in the Zabriko area.  Phase IV will install an irrigation system in order to expand agricultural production into the dry season, roughly doubling the area's income.  MPP will attempt to fund this last phase through a long term micro-finance loan.

Another project that MPP has previously attempted is provision of education to the 50% of Zabriko children who cannot afford tuition at the Catholic school and cannot obtain one of the limited spaces at the public school.  Approximately 1000 children do not receive any education because their parents are too poor.   We are still searching for funding sources for the latter phases of the water, sanitation, and hygiene education projects as well as the school project.