Energy and water public utilities strive to provide a better service

CAMEP, the state firm responsible for providing drinking water, is working to standardize its supplies

The situation regarding public utilities in Haiti highlights some of the difficult problems that the country faces, in addition to offering enormous potential for future expansion if more foreign capital is made available.
Only about a fifth of the country has been electrified, and there is under-capacity in power generation. The Chief Executive Officer of the state utility company Electricité d’Haïti, Jules André Joseph, estimates current demand for the country at around 300MW, but currently only about 130MW are produced.

“We estimate that it costs about US$1 million to install one megawatt of production capacity, so that would be US$170 million to cover the 170 megawatt deficit,” he calculates. “And that is just at the production level. There is also the distribution network and everything else until it reaches the consumer.”

Hydroelectricity generates about two-fifths of Haiti’s current production; the rest comes from thermal power stations. Another thermal power station is planned, but it will only be built when financing is available.
“We also have projects for renewable energy,” Mr. Joseph says. “We’d really like to set up a wave-power station in the north west of the country.”

JULES ANDRÉ JOSEPH Chief Executive Officer of Electricité d’Haïti

Though there has been a lack of investment in recent years, some successful joint ventures in managing electricity supply have occurred, with French and Canadian partners. In Jacmel, for example, a company from Quebec, ACDI, has been working in collaboration with Electricité d’Haïti.

Mr. Joseph is impressed that the Jacmel operation has managed to keep electricity supply losses down at around 15%, as the figure is much higher in many other places, not least the shanty towns around Port-au-Prince as lower-income families often tap into supplies illegally.
“We try to make people in those areas aware of the situation, and to work with them to find a solution,” Mr. Joseph says. “We want people to learn to pay — they should realize that this is a business, that it’s a product we are selling.

“A solution first of all involves establishing a normal supply system. The problem is, they don’t have the means, and neither do we at the moment.”
Mr. Joseph, who has been with the company for over 20 years, is also working to change attitudes among company personnel. “I want to motivate people, so they work professionally,” he explains. “I want there to be seriousness, discipline, and method in what they do. They also need to learn what good management is all about.”

LOUIS CHRISTIAN PATRICE BAPTISTE Chief Executive Officer of CAMEP

Some of the difficulties facing Electricité d’Haïti are mirrored in the experience of Centrale Autonome Métropolitaine d’Eau Potable (CAMEP), the public utility company responsible for providing drinking water to Port-au-Prince. It too suffers from under-capacity, and from illicit tapping into supplies.
“Our main difficulty is in the maintenance of our service to deliver drinking water to the
people,” says CAMEP’s Chief Executive Officer, Louis Christian Patrice Baptiste. “And as you know, the water sector is a sector that affects the whole country’s livelihood.”

Though a lack of funds is the principal reason for shortcomings in the service, there is an added problem caused by the number of illegal wells and water channels that people have dug.
“In order to reduce this problem, we have set up four agencies for distributing water in the metropolitan area,” Mr. Baptiste says. “Each of them has a treatment system so people can get drinking water.”
The installation of a proper sanitation infrastructure is another area that needs to be addressed. Most households have to deal with their own sanitation, which means either using drainage channels or relying on waste water to drain into the ground.

CAMEP’s General Secretary, Frantz Benoit, outlines how the company carries out its work in particularly poor communities. “In the past, one of the inhabitants would dig a pool and then buy a water truck from some doubtful source, after which he could sell water at a high price to the population.

“So CAMEP introduced a program of bringing water into the area by a network of standard pipes and then charging for the use of a tap supply. In that way, water is sold to people at a very modest price. We have set up local management committees, which handle the money that is collected and supervise water delivery.”
Some jobs are created under such a program, and profits can be used by the management committees to carry out sanitation work, involving not only drainage of waste water but also rubbish collection.

In principle, CAMEP would be interested in entering into partnerships with private business, but as Mr. Benoit points out, that would require a new law setting out how that could be done. “What we can do already is ask the State to subsidize us, and to look for donors who would be interested in financing us,” he says.
Mr. Baptiste echoes the need for further investment. “Coupled with reform of our management structure, we have big plans for the improvement of sanitation and sewerage infrastructure, and the distribution of water. We need the investment to help us with these programs.” He believes that the most important thing is for the international community to be made aware of Haiti’s requirements, and that foreign interest and investment will then follow.