Kevin Bronson reports on Haiti Lasstic Water Project

Its not often you hear the words "ahead of schedule" associated with Haiti, but so far at lease we are not behind schedule. Work for the 2012 season started on Jan 10 with the arrival of Neil & Susie, and has been helped along by Mike & Maxine, Eric & Nicole, Jerome, Ray Dean, & David.

I'm writing this from the SF airport as most of my family and I are ready to board on our way to join the team. We'll meet Eldon on the way, Denver & Noreen & the rest of my family will join us soon, and that makes up our team, at least for now. With the work progressing well, enough of us came on one way tickets to finish the project.

We left last year without finishing, and some of our temporary erosion control methods failed, so we had some damage to repair before we could start building. The locals also left two clean outs open last year which were filled with silt by the rains, and they need to be re-opened.

At this time most of the damage is repaired, and new construction has begun. We completed the first of two water taps in villages along the way. When the second one is finished, we will seal the clean outs so that the possibility of future plugging is eliminated.

The new construction this year will include the two fountains, a foot and animal bridge across the canal, completion of an air vent on the pipeline, and installation of our infamous gates. We are also working with the village "notables" and farmers in Fond Parisien to start a "water committee" to manage the water, which we hope to have flowing in the next two or three weeks. The entire system will need some flushing and checking as we get the water flowing.

As time permits, we also hope to do a more formal review of the distribution system, parts of which date to the 60s. We know repairs are needed in several areas, and we are bombarded with requests for expansion of the system to serve additional farming areas. We feel we cannot expand the system without a pretty good idea of the layout, capacity, current demand, and condition.

After a year of unsuccessful attempts to sell our rock drill in Haiti or the neighboring Caribbean countries, we have decided to bring it back to the US. We have a Customs broker arranged, and expect to have it delivered to the port in St Mark in early February.

We have set up housekeeping in the same place we have been the last two years. Our Dmax truck and Kubota generator are serving us very well, and we have a fairly comfortable existence.

And finally, an update on Raymonds. You may have wondered at the absence of his and Vera's name. RW was doing some doctoring late last year, and he ended up having a quadruple bypass surgery in Texas in Mid January. He is home recuperating, and both our crew in Haiti and R&V in TX would like to see him on the project. We keep in close contact; news goes one way and advice the other!