March 28, 2025
Helvetas Haiti and its partners are celebrating World Water Day with a series of activities in Marigot to raise awareness about water management and the impacts of climate change. This activity is being carried out as part of the RESEPSE project, which is mandated by the Ministry of the Environment and funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF).
To mark World Water Day, Helvetas Haiti and its partners organized a series of notable activities on Saturday, March 22, 2025, in the commune of Marigot. These events began with a guided tour of the Médée spring watershed, where work was carried out as part of the “Strengthening Local Governance of Water and Sanitation in Haiti” (REGLEAU) program. The objective of this visit was to raise awareness among participants about the importance of recharging water tables, protecting spring catchment areas from all forms of pollution, and capturing and distributing quality water.
Conferences were then organized around themes related to water management, climate change, and community resilience. These conferences were primarily intended for an audience of students, who also enlivened the event with plays, songs, and readings of texts related to the day’s theme. This festive atmosphere helped strengthen the commitment of young people to the cause of water and the environment.
The theme for World Water Day 2025, chosen by the United Nations, is: “Save our glaciers, preserve our future .” However, according to Mr. Detheonome Jean-Louis, coordinator of the event: “This theme is far removed from our reality. That is why we chose a sub-theme more suited to our context, convinced that every action taken in Haiti to protect the environment contributes to saving the glaciers.” The objective of this activity, he specified, was to raise awareness among local stakeholders on the need to protect watersheds to ensure long-term water availability.
This celebration took place within the framework of the project “Strengthening the climate resilience of the drinking water sector in southern Haiti (RESEPSE)” , in synergy with the REGLEAU programs and the ACAT, PROFESE, PARER, and INOVEE projects, all implemented by Helvetas Haiti.
The RESEPSE project aims to strengthen the resilience of vulnerable rural and peri-urban communities in the South-East department to the impacts of climate change on the availability of and access to drinking water. It pursues three specific objectives:
Improve understanding and awareness of the vulnerability of the water sector to climate change.
Strengthen regulatory and policy frameworks, as well as institutional capacities at different levels for better management of drinking water in the current context of climate change.
Identify and promote appropriate practices for the conservation, management and supply of drinking water in the face of climate change challenges.
The RESEPSE project, mandated by the Ministry of the Environment, is financed by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and administered by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).