Morne Lopital - Haiti Observer Blog

Ménard is a town built on uneven slopes, with a sandy dirt road leading to it. It lies up from Jalousie, erected on the same area of slope. Power service in Ménard is undependable, and requires action committees of citizens to demand power be available more hours of the day. But the biggest issue facing Ménard is Morne L'Hôpital, slated for reforestation and fighting to defend its boundaries against the incursions of residents, who want to use the stone bunds as building materials for their homes.

The Martelly Administration began a rehabilitation project for the Morne hospital. They would provide many thousands of seedlings, build 48 toilets, erect half a dozen sediment retention ponds, and demarcate the reforestation of the hospital with stone bunds. Little has happened to achieve these goals.

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There was no other multi- faceted development program ever before in Haiti like the work of watershed management in the Morne Hospital area. The primary object of the project was to reduce flood risks in the Morne Hospital and its surrounding area. Every year even a slightest rain used to cause real danger in the slopping alluvial areas and many other parts of Port-au-Prince.

The project under the program employed over 4,035 people living in the downstream areas. In addition to reducing flood risks and risks to human lives, the project was unmatched in offering many other benefits like creation of jobs, creating awareness to protect environment, reduction of community violence, improving health condition and strengthening the internal drainage of the city.

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