The Clean Water for the Artibonite Region of Haiti project is almost finished. 16,000 Haitian families are ready to have long-term access to clean, safe water. We need another $7,060 to make this happen. Most of these funds will be used to ensure the project’s sustainability.
Sustainability: Clean Water for the Artibonite Region of Haiti Project
COMMUNITY FUNDING STRUCTURE
The ongoing costs associated with the project will be covered completely by the community created funding structure at each of the water stations. For every five gallons of water, people will donate $.01. This amount enables the communities to have a clean water program that they can eventually operate on their own. Like many communities in Haiti, they have seen many projects come to an end once the group that created them left, because they were not designed to be run by the communities themselves. By setting this specific donation amount, it is estimated that every water station will create excess of funds of $2365. If the station brings in less funds than expected, they will still likely break even, which is the main goal. The local Rotary, which is a respected and established part of the community, will complete monthly evaluations of each site to check the functionality of the chlorination system and fund collection structure. International Action will provide support if technical help is needed.
PROJECTIONS
Below are the projections that detail how much each water treatment system should cost to run for a year as well as the amount of estimated funds each water treatment system should collect each year.
Anticipated yearly operational costs: $4935/system
Anticipated yearly funds from Haitian community: $7,300/system
Excess Funds: $2365/system
|
Funds Donated per day, per system |
||
| Donated Amount for Water (USD per gallon) | $0.002 | |
| Number of Families | 2,000 | |
| Water Usage (gallons per family, per day) | $10 | |
| Total Funds Donated per Day
( Cost of water x # of families x Water Usage) |
$40 per day | |
|
Funds Donated per year, per system |
||
| Potential Total Funds Donated
(Total Funds Donated per Day x 365) |
$14600 per year | |
| Actual Total Funds Donated
(Halved to anticipate poor families who cannot pay) |
$7300 per year | |
| Anticipated Costs per year, per system | ||
| Operational Costs: | Component cost per year | |
| Chlorine Tablets | $225 | |
| Generator Fuel | $2430 | |
| Residual Chlorine Test Kits | Donated by IA | |
| Equipment Maintenance | $40 | |
| Administration and Staffing | $1,800 | |
| Replacement Costs: | ||
| Generator | $200 | |
| Pump | $240 | |
| Total Costs | $4935 per year | |
| Excess Funds Generated | $2365 per year | |
PROJECTIONS EXPLAINED
Funds Donated Per Year Per System
Donated amount for water: 1 US Cent per 5 gallons of water. This price was modified after recent community meetings re-evaluated what was best for the community.
Number of Users:vWhile every community is slightly different in size, there are seven total water stations that will be operational once the three new water stations are completed, meaning, on average, each station serves 10,000 people (an estimated 2000 families, assuming a family of five).
Water Usage:vEach family on average uses 10 gallons of water per day. This estimation is based on local information, as most laundry in this region is done using surface water.
Total Funds Available Each Year: This means that on average each water station should receive about $40 a day, or $14,600/year. However, from experience working in many other communities in Haiti, International Action has found that it is best practice to half this number when making projections as the water committee members do not collect funds from every family because many families in Haiti are too poor to pay-in for water. This means that each station will theoretically earn a total of $7,300 each year.
NOTE: Projections may be different in other International Action projects as every Haitian region has different levels of access to other water sources, different community structures and a different purchasing power.
COSTS OF MAINTAINING SYSTEMS EXPLAINED
Operational Costs
Chlorine tablets:
20 tablets/month x 12 months = 240 tablets/year — 96 tablets cost $90 or $.9375/tablet x 240 = $225/year
Generator Fuel:
Price of diesel as of July 2014: 2 gallons are needed per day on average at $3.33 US/gallon $3.33 x 365 days = $2,430/year
Residual chlorine testing kits:
Donated by International Action
Equipment Maintenance:
Pump: no maintenance needed during life expectancy of pump
Generator: The oil will be changed every 100 hours of use, and the spark plugs are only about $1.50 each. Oil is also very cheap, about $20 a year, and another $20 is needed for general maintenance, although this will not be required during the first year of use as the generators are new.
Administration and Staffing:
Each community water station has a committee of three people that are in charge of running the taps at the station, testing water, purchasing and refilling chlorine and generator fuel, maintaining equipment and collection and management of money received from water station donated funds. The water stations are open five days a week. There is always one water committee member on duty. The water committee members will need to meet to discuss chlorine and fuel usage, and to check and manage the funds collected from the station. Each committee member will be paid $50 a month, totaling $1,800 a year for the entire water committee salary, per system (this salary was changed from $150 per committee member by a recent vote from the community leadership, as this will be part-time work and the communities decided that they wanted to lower the cost of purchasing water from the water stations).
Replacement Costs
All of the following costs will be put into a reserve managed by the local St. Marc Rotary Club, who will be the main supervising body for the post-implementation phase of The Artibonite Region of Haiti Clean Water Project – PHASE II.
Generator:
Life expectancy: 10 years. Replacement cost: $2,000.
Reserve to be built per year: $200/year.
Pump:
Life expectancy: 3 to 4 years due to Calcium carbonate built-up. Cost: Submersible pump: $880. Surface pump: $470.
Reserve to be built per year: about $240/year
Why Diesel Generators?
When the project began, International Action was going to use solar powered pumps, instead of pumps that operate using generators that require fossil fuels. The reasoning for this was two-fold:
1. To help ensure the sustainability of the project so the communities did not have to purchase fuel (this is the projects’ biggest operating expense for every water station).
2. To be as environmentally friendly as possible.
However, because the water stations were going to be providing water to so many people it was too expensive to provide the solar powered equipment and the communities did not want to use the solar powered pumps because they thought they were too complicated to operate and were unsure how they would fix them if they were to break. Hand pumps or non-fuel needing mechanical pumps do not work with the water treatment systems that International Action uses because they do not provide enough head to pump water to the top of the water tank and through the chlorinator.
Usually, International Action installs water systems on pipelines that use gravity to transport the water from a piped system, but this is not an option at these particular sites because there is no piped water system – to create one would be a multi-million dollar project. Since the main goal of the project is to ensure sustainable access to clean, safe water, the use of diesel powered generators was decided upon by the communities, the local Rotary and International Action because:
1. The availability of diesel in the communities.
2. The ability of the communities to repair the generators or purchase new ones locally.
3. The savings on initial capital costs
The people in the Artibonite need your help one more time