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Rehabilitating Basic Infrastructure

Challenge

Haiti’s basic infrastructure is virtually nonexistent or in poor condition, making it extremely difficult for local inhabitants to conduct business, access markets, and attract investment. The situation is particularly challenging in rural areas.

Approach and partnership

This five-year program was launched in June 2004 and aims to promote local economic recovery in several regions of Haiti by rehabilitating basic infrastructure through small and medium-sized projects. These include roads, ports, drinking water and sanitation systems, municipal facilities, irrigation, and power systems. The Basic Economic Infrastructure Rehabilitation Program (PREIEB) is administered by the Technical Execution Unit (UTE) of Haiti’s Ministry of the Economy and Finance.

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) provided US$150,000 in technical assistance to launch the program, while the Government of Haiti has contributed US$21,692. The program’s total budget is US$110 million, of which IDB has provided US$70 million, the Canadian Government US$32 million, the OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID) US$7 million, and the Haitian Public Treasury US$800,000. The UTE has also mobilized supplementary resources (€8 million, or US$10.6 million) from the French Agency for Development.

Results

To date, 24 works have been completed, 15 contracts are underway and 20 projects are in the planning stages. About two million people have already benefited from the program, which is focused on the Southeast, West, Artibonite, Northwest, North, and Northeast departments.

Highlights:

  • In Jacmel, 5.5 km of municipal roads have been rehabilitated, sewage systems have been built, and drinking water pipes have been replaced.
  • The bridge on the Lascahobas river (30 m long), at the entrance to the city of the same name, was rebuilt, ensuring a link with the capital.
  • The new Bayeux river bridge (60 m long) and the ongoing work on the Limbé – Le Borgne road (29 km) already have cut in half the travel time between these two cities in the North.
  • A new 5.5 km electric power line at Cap-Haïtien, Haiti’s second-largest city, provides an urgently needed, reliable electricity supply to the city’s drinking water pumping stations.  The construction of two water tanks will significantly increase the amount of potable water available.
  • Irrigation projects on 350 ha of land in Maribaroux, in the Northeast are ongoing.
  • A Building and Sustainable Development Plan has been adopted by the Jacmel city government, prepared with the assistance of the Departmental Office of Public Works in Guadeloupe, and coordinated by the UTE with the financial backing of France.

 

Next steps

A total of more than 60 work contracts (average value: US$1.4 million) will have been executed by the end of the Program. The wastewater management projects will be co-financed (€3 million, or US$4 million) with the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation and coordinated with the Ministry of Public Works, Transport and Communications.

Learn more

For more information on the IDB’s work in Haiti, please visit:
http://www.iadb.org/en/countries/haiti/hope-for-haiti,1001.html

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