By Neil Van Dine
Nacius Mitil, along with his wife and 2 children live in the community of Galwa in Capotille, Haiti. Nacius has spent his whole life using what he had on hand to deliver water to his family. “Delivering water” meant walking to the closest spring 500m away, a spring that is unprotected and “scooping” water out of a small hole in the earth with a cup, taking lots of time, in order to fill their dirty little bucket. Then he had to carry that heavy bucket back, just for 5 gallons of water.
For Nacius, what was important was getting the water to his house, not how it got there or how clean everything was, until Haiti Outreach started working in his community.
Part of our program includes having the local population create for themselves what a community with clean water looks like, through the coaching of Haiti Outreach. The newly created CPE (water point committee) decided that having a managed well and people using clean buckets with lids was what that meant. The lid was necessary because of the large amounts of dust, bugs and animals that could contaminate water in a bucket with no lid. They then began holding public meetings to educate the people in their community about the importance of clean water, clean buckets with lids, latrines and everything else they created in their dream of having a clean community. Nacius was part of that crowd…
When the well in Galwa was inaugurated in September, Nacius showed up, proudly displaying his “clean” bucket. He had stayed up late cleaning and scrubbing his bucket so he would be proud when getting water from the new well he had become a member of. Unfortunately he had no lid for his bucket. He had no job and was barely able to feed his family from the production of his small garden. He went to the well anyways, after all, most things in Haiti aren’t managed, so probably, no one would say anything…
When he got there, the “guard” in charge of the well told him he could not access the well without a clean bucket and lid. He was devastated and went to speak with his neighbors who were responsible for the well. They told him why the rules existed and why he needed a lid. Because they knew his situation, one member offered two lids for his bucket as a gift. He returned to the well and began gathering fresh clean water in his bucket with a lid, and promised to never use the dirty spring again and to continue paying for the service of clean water going forward.
