SOIL On Track to Meet Clinton Global Initiative Commitments

As one of the only organizations providing complete sanitation in Haiti – toilets and treatment – SOIL takes its commitments to increasing sanitation access very seriously. In 2011 we applied, and were accepted, to the Clinton Global Initiative‘s Haiti Action Network. We have used this forum to publicly state our objectives for increasing sanitation access and to support an international initiative to increase accountability for international organizations in Haiti.

Today I’m proud to announce that SOIL successfully achieved their CGI commitment of providing clean and dignified sanitation to 20,000 people living in Port-au-Prince’s IDP camps and in impoverished communities of northern Haiti that would otherwise have no access to improved sanitation. The toilets that SOIL built for this commitment have been internationally recognized for being some of the most cost-effective and popularly-received toilets built as part of the earthquake relief effort.

SOIL is now working to further long-term development goals in Haiti by transitioning from managed public toilets to communal toilets where a few households share the key (and maintenance responsibilities) for a semi-private facility. In order to achieve this objective, SOIL is working with community representatives to make long-term plans that account for people moving out of tents into permanent housing and for the need for additional toilets in some areas in order to achieve a ratio of no more than five families sharing a toilet.  As of April 2012, SOIL continues to provide sanitation to approximately 10,000 people living in IDP camps in Port au Prince and 5,000 people in vulnerable neighborhoods in northern Haiti.

And now we are hard at work on meeting the second part of our CGI commtiment:  developing a sustainable and replicable business model for household sanitation systems. We’re very excited about the potential benefit of this program and we hope you will consider making a donation to SOIL to help us achieve it.

A SOIL toilet under construction at the Bwa Grifen IDP camp in Port-au-Prince.