Solar Upgrade!

We are celebrating with the communities of Lakos Jean Louis and Paskaymit in the Central Plateau who inaugurated solar pumps this past week! In collaboration with Minneapolis Uptown Rotary Club and the Pignon Rotary Club these communities were carefully selected for the upgrade. Solar pumps allow older adults and children better ease at water access without having to pump by hand.

Haiti Outreach, along with the Pignon Rotary Club, initially evaluated 6 communities that had hand pumps to see which 2 would be best for this project. The criteria included both technical criteria (was there enough water being produced for the expected increase use of the well, was the water potable, etc. ) and management criteria (was the community managing the well effectively for several years and keeping up with good accounting habits, etc.).

It is important to note that this change is an added monthly expense for the well subscribers. For this reason one committee originally chosen, did decline the upgrade. In the pay-for service model that we have helped communities implement now for over 20 years ensures sustainability and is the key to long term development. Through this selection process each community needed to make a new budget and vote on the changes.

The average monthly household cost for a hand pump is around 60 cents. To change to a solar pump, it changes the cost to $2.30 per month per household. This is due to the added maintenance and repair costs that a solar pump brings.

This is the first time Haiti Outreach has solarized a previously built and operational hand pump community managed well and we look forward to doing more as more communities want to add solar!