Not a Pipe Dream

Vital Stats

Graham S

Grapevine, TX

people helped20000
People Doing It 86

The Problem

My mission to expand all individuals’ human rights to their full potential has deep roots in the community of Cazale, Haiti; where I have resolved to restore the right to clean water for 20,000 people. The community of Cazale, and the surrounding population, is set back into the bare mountains of Haiti. Even though Cazale is rural it was served by a water pipes that brought clean water from a spring source that brought water down a mountain and across two rivers. The system was beginning to show its age, and the 15 foot lengths of galvanized pipe needed to be replaced with larger ones to serve a growing population and demand for clean water, a human right. I refer to this in the past tense because in early September, 2009, Cazale and its surrounding communities were struck by tragedy when the rains from hurricane Ike swelled the Cazale River to the point where hundreds of homes were destroyed, over 50 lives lost, and the water system completely wiped out. That is why I am going to help the community of Cazale restore their right to water by replacing the water system.

Plan of Action

A year before hurricane Ike gave such great impetus to speed up my project implementation I had resolved to replace the greater community of Cazale’s then extant, but rapidly decaying, water system. This is a system which provided for 20,000 in Cazale and the surrounding communities. The first task was to assess the current water delivery system based on community perception. I visited communities only accessible by foot over the course of two weeks to collect information on when, when, and how households collected water and their perception of water rights. This information told me that some communities were not receiving water and the survey itself ignited a community wide discussion about expanding the right to water access. I encouraged communities to begin to act locally while we lobbied the greater global community for assistance. The Group of Volunteers for the Development of Cazale undertook to recruit other communities to assist in maintaining the water system while I lobbied for resources to assist in their quest. Then the hurricane decimated the entire system. Our goals, set at a timeframe of 2 years, are now to repair the cap on the spring which feeds the water system, replace 65 lengths of galvanized pipe, and install secondary water lines to neighborhoods.