By Dorvilier Vildens, PWW Haiti Office
Attendees work together on latrine construction
Pure Water for the World’s Haiti office recently hosted a workshop on sanitation, with a special focus on Latrine Design and Construction. Emilie Sanmartin and Romain Villiers conducted the training. Emilie has been an International Technical Adviser at the Center for Affordable Water and Sanitation Technologies (CAWST) since 2010. She has Masters in Science in Water Management in Community and Water Supply. Romain is an engineer with several years of experience in the WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) sector.
Several NGOs and local organizations attended this workshop, including: GOAL, Gift Water, PAIDEH, RAFASHA, Croix-Rouge Suisse, GRET, CADEH, as well as others. We had a total of 18 participants from different regions across Haiti.
The workshop introduced the concept of a sanitation system that addresses human excreta from the moment it is collected in a latrine, through to treatment, to use and/or disposal of the sludge. Its purpose was to respond to the demand for affordable latrines in Haiti, supporting the expansion of NGO knowledge and capacity to implement a variety of low cost latrines. Other factors addressed included accessibility, adaptability to remote and urban communities, soil type, cost, and budget.
Thomas, with his workshop certification.
Through participant feedback, we were able to see how important the information shared in this workshop is to these organizations. Many participants mentioned ways that unsupervised construction of latrines have impacted the underground water reservoirs, rivers and various other water sources.
Thomas Saint-Louis, a member of PAIDEH, a local organization stated, “Such an initiative will certainly increase our skills in building latrines, and the implementation of those skills will permit us to help the population as a whole, particularly addressing the sanitation issues that we are facing.”
We are looking forward to hosting more of these workshops, touching on WASH issues in the near future. For more information, visit http://purewaterfortheworld.org/solutions/wash-wet/