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Haiti Water Crisis Essay

Decent Essays

Out of all nations that publish water sanitation statistics, Haiti is the only country in which there are more individuals today without clean water than there were over twenty years ago (Gelting, Bliss, Patrick, Lockhart, & Handzel, 2013, p. 665). This is largely due to the water crisis occurring in Haiti over the last century. Haiti’s struggles can be derived from the nation’s inability to withstand and recover from natural disasters, economic instability, societal wealth discrepancy, and a cholera outbreak. These differing facets can all be analyzed through the natural, social, and political perspectives in order to demonstrate the severity of the Haitian water crisis, the failure of current attempts at resolution, and the need for further …show more content…

However, in Haiti’s case, it is so entrenched in debt that the government has problems far beyond water and sanitation. In 2008, Haiti was $1.85 billion in debt to other countries, and that figure is only growing (Varma et al., 2008, p. 68). Additionally, countries that were helping reconstruct the physical water system and infrastructure, such as the United States, have been backing out because they know it is unlikely Haiti will repay them. Failed international involvement is a crucial side-effect of a government in disarray. Other nations do not trust Haiti and do not want to enter the scene of turmoil. Consequently, such a shortage of financial resources is harming multiple facets of Haitian lives. For example, the country does not even know how much water it requires for self-sufficiency because the government has not allocated funds to research and development (Stoa, 2015, p. 5). Moreover, water transportation is currently ineffective. The natural geographic location of individuals relative to the water supply puts the metropolitan areas at an advantage. Wealthier individuals have cisterns and can pay a premium for water whereas rural residing Haitians often travel on foot carrying their water in buckets (Varma et al., 2008, p. 70). However, developing more efficient water distribution procedures for the population at large is costly and requires funding the government cannot

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