“It’s the alarm to go and fetch water”

Delmas, Haiti – Early in the morning in Delmas, Larame Jean-Guerson’s phone rings. His wife, half asleep, says, “Your phone is ringing.” Every time, he gives the same answer: “It’s the alarm to go and fetch water.” 

Jean-Guerson didn’t always live this way. Before fleeing the violence, he lived in a house he had built himself and worked hard to give his family a better life. Then armed groups attacked his neighbourhood, looted his home and burned everything he owned. “It was my own house. I was the one who built it,” he says. 

He fled with his wife and their daughter. “I manage to get by, but the situation has become extremely difficult,” he explains. Insecurity limits job opportunities and makes it hard for Jean-Guerson to earn enough to provide for his family. 

Whenever the water tanker arrives, residents rush over. As early as 5 a.m., someone is already queuing and alerts the others when the water tanker arrives. The tanker is part of the water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) response that the National Directorate for Water and Sanitation (DINEPA) is carrying out with UNICEF for displaced families and the communities hosting them. From May to August, more than 77,000 litres of drinking water and 264,000 litres of water for essential needs were delivered every day to displaced families and host communities. 

Placing a single bucket is enough to hold your place. When distribution begins, everyone comes back with four, five or six containers, and all of them can be filled. “There are no fights or arguments,” Jean-Guerson points out. 

Jean-Guerson’s water supply usually lasts him five to six days, before he gets up early again to refill his containers. This treated water, free of charge, is used for everything: drinking, cooking, making juice, washing, flushing the toilet. “If we can’t wash, we can’t stay clean, and if we don’t drink enough water, we can’t stay healthy,” he says. 

For him, this water is “a true blessing.” The money he saves allows him to buy exercise books and schoolbooks for his daughter, who is in her third year of nursery, so that she can revise her lessons over the holidays. On school mornings, the water is also used to wash his daughter before school and to prepare her meal and the homemade juice she takes with her. “I don’t know what the future holds, but for now, this water is available to us,” Jean-Guerson says. He hopes the initiative will continue, noting that access to water is a vital lifeline for families in the neighbourhood in the face of the current crisis. 

To make sure the water is safe, UNICEF and its partners monitor its quality in the field. A worker measures residual chlorine and pH using a colourimetric comparator to ensure that the water distributed to families is safe to drink without risk. 

Alongside the tanker distributions, water kiosks allow residents to get water free of charge. Mackendise runs one. She, too, gets up early to serve the community. Sometimes neighbours knock on her gate before she is even out of bed to ask for a gallon of drinking water. “It brings me great joy to be able to give them this water when they need it,” she says. 

Not everyone can afford to pay 100 gourdes for a gallon of treated water. From June to August, Mackendise saw some people come every day or every other day. Over several months, those 100 gourdes saved per gallon add up to real savings. “I am truly happy and proud to be able to provide them with this water,” she concludes. 

Between May and August, these water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) interventions benefited nearly 27,000 people. DINEPA and UNICEF are continuing their efforts to ensure access to safe drinking water for displaced families and host communities, so that they do not have to choose between essential needs. 

This initiative is implemented by DINEPA and UNICEF with support from the Haiti Humanitarian Fund (HHF).