Source: http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/water/2010/04/30/environmental-regeneration-in-haiti-the-water-problem/
POSTED BY JULIA APLAND HITZ | APR 30, 2010
Most people are familiar with the overwhelming problems faced by the people of Haiti after the earthquake in January. Images of the destroyed city of Port au Prince give a sense of the work that will be needed to rebuild that society.
It isn’t only the people in the city who are struggling, and not all the work is a matter of reconstructing fallen infrastructure. The rural areas have very little infrastructure to begin with, and the basic sustainability of the natural environment is in question.
Columbia Water Center research scientist Lior Asaf is working in Haiti to understand the existing environmental conditions, and look for ways to improve people’s lives for the long term. He is working with an Earth Institute, Center for International Earth Science Network(CIESN), program called the Haiti Regeneration Project, which also involves the United Nations Environment Programme and Hatian partners.
This watershed management project will take a long-term approach, 20 years in fact, to find sustainable solutions to the problems faced by rural Hatians, and is made up of an interdisciplinary team working in reforestation, agro-forestry, sustainable energy, and flood risk management. One part of the project focuses on the Port Piment watershed basin on the southwestern end of the island. The main town of Port a Piment is a seven hour drive from Port au Prince, and is the only part of the area with road access