Ain’t No Mountain High Enough (to stop SOIL’s EkoLakay collection team)

At SOIL, our mission is to expand safe sanitation access to every corner of Cap-Haïtien. But what happens when the neighborhoods we want to serve are up steep and densely vegetated hills that our Poopmobile collection vehicles (as heroic as they are) simply can’t climb? Our fleet of three-wheelers works well on city streets, but they can’t navigate steep, rocky, narrow mountain paths. 

This logistics challenge has pushed our team to innovate new ways of servicing families in harder-to-reach areas without compromising service efficiency. Our current solution is the deployment of focal collection points, one place where several families can drop-off and pick-up EkoLakay containers a short walk from their homes. From there, a larger SOIL truck picks up everything in one trip rather than traveling door-to-door. This concept was inspired by Sanima, another container-based sanitation organization operating in Peru, who exclusively uses a grouped collection point strategy. 

We first tested this method in Fort Bougouis, a mountainous area on the road to a commonly known beach, Plage Cormier. Before launching, we worried customers might be frustrated about walking farther down to the collection point than EkoLakay clients that live in flatter and easier-to-access neighborhoods. Still, we decided to pilot the model and listen carefully to client feedback.

In our first trial, households were asked to leave their filled containers at the collection point the night before, or early on collection day. Later in the day, our team 

would pick them up and drop off fresh containers with bonzodè (cover material) for families to collect at their convenience.

Two issues with this method quickly surfaced:

1. Some people took more fresh containers than they returned.

2. Some non-paying households in service suspension (koupe sèvis) still left their containers for collection.

To address these challenges, piloted a new idea where an AJK (one of SOIL’s community sales agents) is present at the collection point during a set window of time—for example 9–11 a.m. They have the opportunity to check off households as containers are exchanged in-person and also review client payments.

This simple addition of having a window of time for pick-up solves two problems at once: it ensures fairness in container swaps and strengthens the relationship between SOIL’s AJK’s and our EkoLakay customers.

To find out about how clients may feel about this collection window, our Research Associate Miselie held focus groups in Fort Bougouis. She asked directly: “How do you feel about this system, and the pickup window?” The response was encouraging—residents said they were comfortable with the arrangement and mutually agreed that it was better to have someone keeping track of which families are picking up containers, so that everyone who is supposed to get one, can.

This feedback is good news for SOIL’s operations team as we refine strategies for reaching more mountainous communities. By testing collection points, we’re learning how to make sanitation services possible even in areas that we can’t easily reach.

Each adaptation—whether it’s adding AJK oversight, listening to client voices, or reshaping collection logistics—brings us closer to our vision: a Cap-Haïtien where every family, no matter how remote, has access to safe and dignified sanitation.