Making Haiti "The Pearl of the Antilles" again : what can be done?

Abstract

From being the "Pearl of the Antilles", Haiti has regressed to being the poorest country in the Western hemisphere. Several factors contributed to this decline, including a long history of exploitation, corruption, political instability, and devastating natural disasters. Today, only 25% of the population has access to electricity [1], and 71% has access to water with low level of sanitation [2]. To remediate that, this thesis proposes to Integrate Pumped Hydro systems with Reverse Osmosis plants (IPHROS) to reduce the capital and operating cost of the systems if they were to be built separately. The overall goal is to provide clean energy and freshwater to the Haitian population. An analysis of Haiti's topography showed that the southeast region of the country would be a prime candidate for IPHROS which requires an elevation of at least 500m as close as possible to the sea. We found that if used to its full potential, the region can provide freshwater and energy to more than 30% of the population. It was also found that such a project could cost around USD 6.5 billion which would need to be supplied mostly through investment. Haiti's political atmosphere as well as our society's value system, makes it challenging to attract investors. Fortunately, a micro-utility company, called Sigora Haiti, might provide an opportunity for a partnership that would help implement IPHROS and get Haiti back on the right development path.