Captages & Hens

Water is a very precious commodity in Haiti-especially treated water. Lack of clean water is a major contributing factor to sickness, mortality and poverty.  Every afternoon here in Gros Morne, especially now, during the dry season,  you can see people carrying containers of various shapes and sizes to one of the water offices to collect clean water.  Usually, the job of collecting the water falls to the women and children.  In town, it’s easy enough to collect clean water although I wouldn’t want to haul those containers of water very far.  The lucky ones have a wheelbarrow and the real lucky ones can use a moto.

Out in the countryside, it’s not quite so easy.  Here, it usually falls to the women to walk to the nearest spring each day and fill up a container of water. Often the nearest spring is an hour walk or more away over steep, treacherous, narrow paths. (Ayiti means “ land of high mountains,” after all) Not only that, but collecting water from a spring generally means  collecting quite a bit of silt as well, since the water just percolates up onto the surrounding dirt.

As a result, many volunteer groups help build a “captage” at the spring. The captage is a concrete structure  which permits the water to be collected without so much of the silt. Then, a series of pipes brings the water to a central location that is much closer to the villages that rely on the spring water. Often, a reservoir is included in the system so that water can be stored.  Without a reservoir, of course, the water just keeps pouring out whether anyone is collecting it or not.

Resurrection Parish in Maryland , under the leadership of Sr. Rita Ricker, RJM,  has been part of the “Parish Twinning Program of the Americas” since 2001.  (www.parishprogram.org). This program connects Catholic parishes in the USA with a sister parish in Latin America and the Caribbean but primarily in Haiti.  Resurrection’s twin includes the greater Gros Morne area.  They have been helping with various projects in this area and sending a delegation to visit each year.  In addition to building chapels and schools, the Parish has also helped to build several captages in the communities in the mountains surrounding Gros Morne. Below are some photos taken of one of those captages they visited  during their stay here earlier this month. 

Although not part of the Resurrection Parish program, you could say that “Hens for Haiti” was hatched from it. (www.hensforhaiti.org). Below are some photos taken when the founder, Christie Newman, a former volunteer here in Gros Morne,  and the rest of the Resurrection team visited the “poulaye” (hen house). Egg production provides economic stimulation, increased local food security, and is a cheap source of protein for Gros Morne.  Plus, I can tell you, they are pretty darn good!

Hen House

Captage

Trail to Captage

Inspecting the Reservoir