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Last week our speaker was Elizabeth Goggins. She spoke on the HANWASH project. HANWASH (Haiti National Clean Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Strategy) is a collaborative national initiative to provide thoughtfully managed and sustainable clean water and sanitation to all citizens of Haiti, along with the associated health, community and economic benefits. The initiative is led by Rotary District 7020 and DINEPA (The Haitian Government’s National Water and Sanitation Agency), along with other non-governmental organization (NGO) partners, such as Haiti Outreach and Pure Water for the World. The intention of HANWASH is simply to facilitate the creation of safely managed access to financially sustainable, potable water and sanitation to every household in Haiti. More specifically, by 2030, HANWASH would ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all through: - Universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water
- Access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene
- Long term commitment and engagement of local communities to support and strengthen improvements and management
This task requires a “systems” approach, not simply creating infrastructure, but establishing a framework of accountability, responsibility and transparency that works to enroll partners and create clear lines of authority and responsibility that result in technically sound, revenue
positive, safely managed infrastructure. Safely managed systems for WASH require that many partners be aligned on the roles and responsibilities necessary for infrastructure to function reliably. This includes Rotary leveraging its advocacy to bring partners to the table: DINEPA operating as the regulatory authority; OREPAs (Regional Offices for Drinking Water and Sanitation) acting as regional implementation and monitoring partners; the municipalities as elected bringing a mandate to improve systems in their communes; and NGOs serving as implementing partners. With this in mind, we created an approach that connects these diverse partners and allows us to begin creating partnerships with these actors. HANWASH will focus on systematically increasing access to sustainable managed water, initially in seven of Haiti’s 145 communes, with the aim of expanding the program across the whole of Haiti once it is shown to be successful. The seven pilot areas are the Communes of Cavaillon, Ferrier, Terre-Neuve, Pignon, Leogane, Les Cayes and Croix des Bouquets – representing at least one commune in each of the four OREPA regions. Each commune is matched with a Rotary club in the area and a Rotary International Champion District. |
