The Problem of Unsanitary Conditions: Professor Gédéon André Presents and Proposes Solutions

“Environmental Perspectives” is the title of Dr. Pierre André Gédéon’s latest article. In this document, the professor outlines the state of environmental degradation in the country over the past fifteen years and its worsening with the rise of insecurity. The public management specialist proposes actions and measures adopted to solve certain environmental problems. “Criminal activities by armed gangs are strongly affected by the physical space and the general population. Environmental degradations have a major impact on the urban environment, agriculture, and the stabilization of watersheds,” Professor Gédéon wrote at the outset. Faced with these major risks, Gedeon believes it is necessary to curb urban pollution and nuisances. According to the research engineer, controlling pollution and nuisances involves a series of measures aimed at reducing the negative impacts of human activity on the environment and public health in urban areas. These include waste management, emissions control, transport improvement, urban planning, and public awareness. Waste Management In the past, even before the insecurity, management in public spaces had always posed an insoluble problem for the country's authorities. They constitute a major and increasingly urgent environmental challenge to be addressed. Currently, with the insecurity, the quantity of waste generated daily in the metropolitan area of Port-au-Prince is estimated at an average of about 1200 metric tons, of which only 100 to 150 tons are collected and deposited at the official central landfill in Truitier. Other sites frequently used by individuals and service providers are often set up along roadsides, in ravines, and riverbeds. It is important to note that these illegal dump sites harbor insect populations, which feed and are also subject to the vagaries of the wind that carries them, affecting the natural human environment. In his text, the professor notes the uncontrolled burning of waste throughout large agglomerations, the inability of municipalities to solve or ensure good waste management, and the non-existence of the SNGRS. In fact, overall, Haiti is exposed; because roads, urban and rural extensions are not sanitized, they are not planned and are located upstream, where they are overwhelmed, they constitute a blockage for the evacuation of water towards the natural outlet of the cities. “This has repercussions on the good number of beaches invaded by plastic materials of all kinds.” Moreover, one must note the clogging of canals and sewers, which makes cities more unsanitary during rainy periods. Measures to Be Taken Mr. Gedeon believes that the problem of unsanitary conditions is urgent; the described situation should constitute a kind of opportunity that should be seized. As an alternative, options include garbage collection, canal dredging, beach cleaning and waste management awareness, installation of trash cans, decoration, installation of pots in public squares, tools, awareness campaigns, etc. “It is therefore necessary to act to make useful an entire category of men and women, particularly young people who are desperately looking for something to be useful to society,” concluded the professor’s text. Gedeon Delva