This Tuesday, a delegation of Haiti and the Dominican Republic will meet to discuss the strategic use of the river Artibonite and the optimization of this resource, in the framework of a joint project. Will be present among other : Bautista Rojas Gomez, Dominican Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, Jean Vilmond Hilaire Minister of the Environment of Haiti and Valérie Julliand, local representative of UNDP.

The project will be implemented through a multi-focal program, with the support of resources of the Fund for Global Environment, the Government of Canada, Oxfam and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). It has as objective, to help the two countries to improve the joint management of the river basin, through an ecosystem approach, in order to eliminate barriers and promote bilateral cooperation and generate profit national, regional and global.

This work will be done through four basic components : the transboundary diagnostic analysis ; a strategic action plan ; the implementation of four pilot projects and the mobilization of resources to support the results.

For Haiti and the Dominican Republic, the Artibonite River is vital, because it provides water to an agricultural region that supplies food to tens of thousands of people. Also in Haiti, 25% of the hydro-electricity is currently produced by the dam of Péligre installed on this river, which is the subject of another hydro-electric project (Project Artibonite 4C + 32 megawatts).

Learn more about the Artibonite River :

The Artibonite is the longest river in Haiti and Hispaniola. It takes its source in the Cordillera Central in the Dominican Republic at 1,000 meters above sea level and travels 320 km before emptying into the Gulf of Gonâve at the level of Grande-Saline.

HL/ HaitiLibre