xuanqi xu hw2b

8/2/2019 Xuanqi Xu HW2b

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Xuanqi XuTheme 3

Group5HW2

Water collecting system in Haiti

MotivationWater shortage is one of the main problems in many developing countries such as Haiti.

33% People (nearly 3 million) in Haiti have no access to usable water, according to

surveys done by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations[1].This

may be caused by government policies, political crisis, natural disasters and

deforestation[1]. Lack of water may also cause the decrease of production for certain

villages and decrease of education because more time are used for everyone to collect

water. Water collection systems such as roof water collection and land surface

catchment are invented by scientists however they are not always usable in poor

villages [2]. Besides, not many people are willing to pay for a new system.

Matnwa Haitians working the land (Picture courtesy of Artmatenwa.org)[1]


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This table shows that few people in poor village south Haiti is willing to pay for a watercollecting system[3]

In many poor villages like Matenwa, people use traditional inefficient water collecting

skills and it is a culture practice that women and children collect water. This always keep

women away from commercial activities and children from school[1].

Our focus is finding a probable way for even poor villages to collect usable water. By

doing this, we can increase the productivity of those villages in Haiti and free people

from collecting water.


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Background/Technical issues

Rooftop rainwater system is introduced to Haiti for water collection. It contains four parts:

the collection area, a conveyance system, storage devices and purification devices [1].

Four rainwater catchment methods are : Single Roof Water Collection, Large Roof

Water Collection, Land Surface Catchments and Storm Water Collection Catchments[1].

Single Roof Water Collection systemis built on the roof of each house. Rainwater is

caught in simple vessels at the edge of the roof. After falling on the roof, rainwater

drains into gutters and then into pipes[1].One disadvantage for these systems is that

they lack the precision and efficiency to provide sufficient healthy water although this

method of catchment is largely reduce the complexity of construction and is a feasible

option to collect water at low cost [1].

Land Surface Catchment is designed to collect water in drain pipes and store the

collected water underground. One disadvantage of this system is water are lost due to

infiltration. Besides, this method costs more [1].

The Storm Water Collection method is used to catch the rain or melted snow that runs

off surfaces such as rooftops and paved streets and flows into a local stream or lake. But

these surfaces need to be kept clean because otherwise the water will become polluted

as the water runs off these surfaces. If the water is polluted, a purification system will

be needed thus raising the cost [1].

In conclusion, several ways are possible to collect water for Haiti. The most importantissue is how to collect clean water and lower the cost to build the system.


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References

[1] M. A. Dupuy ,L. R. Espaillat, R. Fu ,J. C. Wang.Rainwater Harvesting in Matnwa, Haiti,

2011

[2]D. Lantagne, F. Mohamed,P. Oates, and N. Zyl.Haiti Group Report,2001 Retrivedfrom

http://web.mit.edu/watsan/Docs/Student%20Reports/Haiti/HaitiGroupReport2001.pdf [3]D.Whittington, J.Briscoe, X. Mu and W. Barron . Estimating the Willingness to Pay

for Water Services in Developing Countries: A Case Study of the Use of Contingent

Valuation Surveys in Southern Haiti.Economic Development and Cultural Change , Vol.

38, No. 2 (Jan., 1990), pp. 293-311
http://web.mit.edu/watsan/Docs/Student%20Reports/Haiti/HaitiGroupReport2001.pdfhttp://web.mit.edu/watsan/Docs/Student%20Reports/Haiti/HaitiGroupReport2001.pdfhttp://web.mit.edu/watsan/Docs/Student%20Reports/Haiti/HaitiGroupReport2001.pdf

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