ARTICLE - IRRIGATION CANALS - PROBLEMS

PROBLEMS RELATED TO THE MANAGEMENT OF IRRIGATION CANALS
(Haiti Libre) -

Last week, the agronomist Herbert Docteur, Minister of Agriculture met with regional and departmental directors, engineers, experts and various executives of the ministry, to reassess the various works of irrigation canals constructed or rehabilitated in various parts of the country, and to solve some problems of managing of these channels. The establishment of new structures and the regulation of management methods leading to effective results, were the main points made by the executives of the Ministry.

The Minister of Agriculture underlined the weakness of associations mandated to manage the irrigation canals. It would be necessary, according to Herbert Docteur, to reassess and decide on another form of management, noting that millions of gourdes have been spent on the execution of these channels, through the efforts of many institutions and ministry partners of project Winner/USAID, without achieving the expected results.

Jean Robert Estimé, Director of Project Winner/USAID, in his intervention explained that the project Winner/USAID has already done much work of rehabilitation and construction of canals, at Rivière Blanche, Rivière Grise, in the Cul de Sac plain, and in the Artibonite Department, and emphasized that together with the Ministry of Agriculture (MARNDR), regional committees should be set up, consisting only of people affiliated with organizations capable of managing irrigation canals for the benefit of communities.