Following on from the emergency actions successfully carried out to contain the cholera crisis in Haiti at the end of 2010, DINEPA would now like to initiate fundamental measures which will improve the sanitary conditions of the populations in the long term. March 2012, it entrusted a pilot operation in Saint-Marc to LYSA, who aim, amongst other things, to carry out a precise diagnosis of the sanitary situation in households in Saint-marc and in collaboration with the mayor, to draw up a plan for an initial excrement management service.
During the cholera epidemic diagnosed on 24 October 2010, the National drinking water and sanitation directorate (DINEPA) showed great presence on the ground and remarkable responsiveness, which is uncommon in Haiti on the part of the State Service. Although the epidemic was contained in the big towns, albeit at a very high cost, its sporadic resurgence in rural areas and in certain towns in the country, is motivating the Haitian water and sanitation administration to draw up a long-term plan of action whose initial effects must be rapidly tangible. Thus, while it has a good image with the Haitian population who saw it in action on frontline at the height of the crisis , DINEPA must now test its capacity to promote individual sanitation and the technical solutions which will enable it to gradually equip the country with appropriate infrastructures which are all but non-existent at the present time.
This life-size pilot study will also serve as a testing ground for DINEPA by allowing it to test technical solutions and also measure the impact on the Saint-Marc population of its messages of information and encouragement aimed at improving hygiene. It is led by LYSA with the operational support of its subsidiary SESAM, and will enable, after a survey-diagnosis phase has been carried out on all households, firstly the development of a conceptual scheme and framework for the implementation of DINEPA's policy in Saint-Marc, and secondly the experimental implementation of a municipal service for the management of excreta and the operation of the existing systems.