By Neil Van Dine
This week’s story on the impact of Haiti Outreach’s work comes from the National Level of DINEPA. They are the division of the national government’s Ministry of Public Works that are responsible for potable water and sanitation for the entire country.
On Friday I happened upon the last session of DINEPA’s “World Water Week” in Port-au-Prince. I was greeted enthusiastically by Edwige Petit, the National Director of Sanitation for DINEPA, who participated in the Leadership training with us in 2013. She proceeded to show me her written declaration (very long, but the short version is): “To work to increase coverage of water and sanitation access, managed systems and treated water across Haiti.”
She had it read out loud then had everyone sign it, including the Directeur General of DINEPA. Then the Directeur Generale of DINEPA presented awards to the top 6 CAEPA’s (Water system Committee’s) in the country. DINEPA defines a CAEPA as any water system with more than one “water point” like municipal water systems; our wells are classified as CPE’s (Water Point Committee).
The winners were:
Pignon
Thomonde
Hinche
Port de Paix
Jacmel
Jubilee
Yes, Pignon was presented the first award! We spent over a year working with them, training and coaching them to be responsible for the water system.
The rest of the list shows our impact as well:
- The selection of Thomonde and Hinche have been a direct result of our working with and coaching the DINEPA URD Centre guys over the past year.
- The DINEPA people responsible for Port-de-Paix and Jacmel were part of our very first session with Vanto back in 2010-2011.
So we have worked with and/or coached 5 out of 6 of DINEPA’s best managed water systems in the country. Our work is changing the conversation in the country in ways we have yet to see. Very exciting!
