Above: Haiti’s inauguration of the new treatment plant

By the Caribbean Journal staff

Haiti President Michel Martelly inaugurated today a new wastewater treatment plant in the area of Titanyen.

The 12.5-hectare project, which completed with help from the Spanish Agency for International Development, can treat 900 cubic metres of water per day and release clean water into the environment.

“The cholera epidemic is forcing us to understand how important and meaningful the implementation of a purification unit is,” Martelly said.

The government said 1.5 million people could directly benefit from the new plant, which contains seven basins.

The plant’s operations will convert both excreta and wastewater into clean water.

Dealing with excreta in Haiti has proven to be a major problem since the earthquake.

“This station, in operation today, marks the beginning of the takeoff of modern sanitation in Haiti,” said Works Minister Jacques Rousseau.

According to the Minister, it is the first of a set of eight other stations planned or under construction in the country.

In October 2011, Queen Sofia of Spain and Martelly visited the plant when it was under construction. At the time, Martelly called the collaboration the reason why Spain was the first country he visited after being inaugurated as Haiti’s president.

Martelly, who has made environmental improvement a major prong of his administration, said Spain was leading efforts to help deliver drinking water to the reportedly 52 percent of Haitians who do not have access to clean water and sanitation.

The ceremony was also attended by Spanish Ambassador Manuel Hernandez Ruigomez and Juan Lopez-Doriga, the Executive Director of the Spanish Agency for International Development.