Water for Haiti: A great gush of good news?

This is a genuinely good news story from Haiti. Water kiosks in the Ouest department.

Dlo Haiti, a private company, has started them in Mahotte, Saintard and Luly. The business rationale? That there’s a genuine need (the water was being trucked in from Port au Prince nearly two hours away). And crucially there’s the ability to pay.

Dlo Haiti received funding from the IDB’s Multilateral Investment Fund via Leopard Capital. Without wishing to gush (businesses can, after all, go bust; start-ups sometimes never really get going), Leopard appears to have chosen well and the return on investment may be manifold – money, health,.

According to the Fund’s blog, the project plans for that should “some 300 kiosks throughout Haiti, serving more than one million consumers and creating over 4,000 direct and indirect jobs.”

They’re thinking of ways to manufacture the plastic bottles here and they want to have Dlo teams to ensure local engagement.

Bon lide, as they say in kreyol. Good idea.

“Our battered suitcases were piled on the sidewalk again; we had longer ways to go. But no matter, the road is life”
– Jack Kerouac