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14DO: 10.24412/2619-0761-2022-3-30-35 УДК 331:556.2:711
PROBLEMS OF THE URBAN INFRASTRUCTURE OF THE HAITIAN CAPITAL PORT-AU-PRINCE
Kurochkina K.A., Dussap Sabine, N.M. Zatolokina*
Belgorod state technological university named after V.G. Shoukhov, Belgorod, Russia
*E-mail: nm-zatolokina@yandex. ru
Abstract. The lack of urban infrastructure services in the Haitian capital, P ort-au-Prince, is a source of perpetual problems that affect the well-being of the population, their economic prospects and their quality of life. The spatial analysis of the situation in Port-au-Prince study's spatial locations and interactions for a new layout, a new organization of the territory thus making it possible to better understand what is happening in the capital and to solve complex problems. A rapid growth of the population in Port-au-Prince which represents a critical factor and the State having had no prospect of receiving this massive displacement of the population, causing the impotence and inactivity of the State in the face of the deterioration of the existing urban infrastructure and the non-territorial planning in relation to the influx of the population causing a plummeting on all aspects of life, a self-destruction of the capital. Natural resources are being exploited massively, which could lead to a shortage of drinking water and electrical energy; mobility in a saturated capital, a non-existent garbage collection service, heavy recurring natural disasters. How do you deal with these problems in the capital when there is bad governance?
Keywords: Urban infrastructure, Port-au-Prince, slums, rural exodus, poor governance, territorial planning.
Introduction.
Яaiti is the second largest island in the Greater Antilles. Located in the West Indies, it is bathed by the Caribbean Sea. On its territory are the Republic of Haiti and the Republic Dominican. The current population of the Republic of Haiti is 11 724 372 inhabitants (04.10. 2022). The capital of the State of Haiti is the city of Port-au-Prince. The first mention of this geographical point dates back to 1706, but it was not until 1748 that the Frenchman returned and began the construction of the port and the city. For most of the eighteenth century, Port-au-Prince was the center of the island of Haiti and turned out to be an independent state, and Port-au-Prince was its capital. From 1915 to 1934, U.S. troops landed on the island, turning Port-au-Prince into a base for the extraction of raw materials in Haiti. In 2010, Port-au-Prince was the victim of a devastating earthquake. Due to poor quality building materials and widespread corruption, many buildings were destroyed, and more than 200,000 people died.
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Fig. 1. Map of the geographical position of Haiti
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Development: Over the years, Haiti has lost all its growth, and the richest colony in the Americas, is now considered the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, with more than half of its population living below the poverty line. The country faces serious problems but quite surmountable, just take them in context, categorize them and then provide an adequate solution as they go.
In this article, the 4 main challenges: demographic, socio-economic, environmental and financial facing Port-au-Prince, the capital of the country, will be developed and then proposals for solutions will be made.
Fig. 2. Map of the geographical position of Port-au-Prince on the map of Haiti, QGIS
Port-au-Prince, district of the Department of the West with 1,234,742 people for an area of 726.80 km2 hosts about 11 % of the total population of the country and day by day this figure increases due to lack of public service in the other municipalities. A critical factor facing the capital is the rapid growth of the population and the difficulty or inability of the State to provide adequate infrastructure that keeps pace with this growth. Haiti has experienced an exodus to Port-au-Prince in recent decades like no other because the State is almost absent in the other departments of the country and the municipal authorities are deprived of any real development plan. Arriving on the spot, people with financial means buy or rent plots of land or a house and the destitute go to the mountains along the commune and build in the side of the mornes to form or extend slums and therefore become marginalized, excluded from the norm of society with the rupture of all social ties. Reducing the formation of slums and increasing Port-au-Prince's capacity to manage its growth will be fundamental actions.
A social-political program to represent the interests of Haitians through political change and support for government actions. In order to remedy the socio-economic challenges that are very present in the capital of the country, it will be necessary to start with a sustainable development plan through territorial planning to have a global view. A spatial analysis of existing natural resources in order to better arrange housing infrastructure and develop a housing market policy for different categories of inhabitants.
Fresh water in Haiti depends on watersheds but day by day loses capacity. The water table of the Cul-de-sac, the most exploited of the department of the West (Arrondissement of Croix-des-Bouquets), has an area of 376 km2 and had a capacity of about 8 billion m3 of water 20 years ago. An annual recharge of 99 million m3 of water including 71 million from the gray river and the white river that water the Plaine du Cul-de-sac and the other 28 watersheds.
Located north and northeast of Port-au-Prince, the Plaine du Cul-de-Sac is home to the largest agglomerations in the department. Vast areas of agricultural land, which were once dedicated to the production of sugar cane, mangoes, and others, which are gradually transformed into an urban agglomeration, bringing out of the ground many concrete buildings [1, 2].
The aggressive large-scale exploitation of certain private groundwater companies without authorization, the deforestation of the surrounding watersheds, the anarchic construction in the mountains and in the drilling areas that cause water pollution; if there is no brake or drastic regulation by installing sensors to know the quantity of water available and its quality, will push in the coming years the capital to a shortage of hydraulic resources.
The question of population mobility; without adequate transport, Port-au-Prince cannot grow properly. The transport system is not adapted to the travel needs of the population, the capital is characterized by a great proximity between places of activity and places of residence. Due to the rapid growth of the population, the transport system which, at its core, satisfies at least both basic requirements, safety and efficiency falls far short of this problem. In-depth studies should be set up in order to collect data to assess the level of saturation of the network, the volume of traffic and thus define a forecasting model which would enable local authorities to anticipate traffic flows. Between overcrowding, poor road conditions, wide lanes, faulty traffic lights, the problem of open sewers are, among others, the main causes causing traffic jams every day in the metropolitan area of Port-au-Prince. A strategic analysis, a fundamental step and the basis of the socio-economic assessment allows us to better reflect the existing situation, with a territorial analysis on the economic, social, environmental and functional levels of transport networks of the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince. Throughout the country, we can see that road network routes are created by the municipality or by the state only after the use or invasion of land by the population while buildings should be erected afterwards; due to a lack of territorial planning we are witnessing a self-organization of the population and the municipality does not organize but rather follows the flow.
Haiti is endowed with two sources of energy: Thermal source and hydroelectric. Thermal power plants that produce electricity from heat by thermal machines and hydroelectric power plants that convert hydropower into electricity.
The country has renewable energy potential but significant challenges in accessing it, on average, 80 % of electricity is produced from imported fossil fuels. Underutilized opportunities for small hydropower systems, smart grids and biomass make Haiti an interesting renewable energy prospect. A large part of the population depends on biomass such as charcoal and woofed fuel as the main source of energy. Although solar and wind resources are available throughout the country, very little of this potential has been developed. The largest contribution of renewable energy to Haiti's energy source comes from hydroelectric power. Haiti has an installed capacity of 250 to 400 megawatts (MW), but only 60 % of the installed capacity is reliable, as many generation units need rehabilitation and repair work. The total unmet demand for residential and commercial electricity in the country is estimated at about 500 MW per day. Only about 40 % of Haitians have access to electricity, with an average annual consumption of only 21KWh/person. 506 million KWh produced by two private companies using diesel fuel; 284 million KWh generated by the power stations of the Electricity of Haiti (EDH), of which 226 million KWh produced by the Peligre hydroelectric power station located in the department of Artibonite; 334 million KWh produced from three heavy oil-fired power plants developed under a tripartite Cuba-Venezuela-Haiti agreement; 10,000 KW h electrical box with uninterrupted transmission and distribution of electricity (24/7) that serves the Caracol industrial park.
There is only 72 % electrification in urban areas and 15% in rural areas, which pushes citizens to buy themselves electricity production equipment and charging stations. Given Haiti's tropical climate and high percentage of daily sunshine, the country could be a leading candidate for wind and solar power generation projects [3, 4].
According to a 2021 United Nations Development Program (UNDP) study on solid waste in Haiti, the 11 million inhabitants produce about 6,600 tons of waste in one day while only 12 % of this waste is collected by public and private institutions. The Haitian government has made commitments at the national level through a series of plans and public policies over a 9-year projection, i.e., in 2030, to obtain concrete results in the field of solid waste management around 3 axes: Reduction, Reuse and Recycling. In depth, we think that the first step to take would be to think about other waste reduction contingencies compared to packaging products for reuse and increasing the production of recyclable plastic bottles. A new organic waste recycling program should be launched on the national territory in order to make citizens responsible for sanitation through domestic sorting.
The assessment of wastewater and rainwater is a major problem, the pipes are proving unsuitable in relation to the explosion of the population of Port-au-Prince. The capital had a pipe network built in the years 1959, but given the urban sprawl and the loss of control and the non-planning of the urban space upstream, the new buildings that are erected have not been connected to these networks, so the wastewater is directed on the public road or for some goes into septic tanks annexed to the buildings and are not collective. Not all pipe systems are connected and therefore go to different mouthpieces; because of deforestation, rainwater directly litters the soil which becomes impermeable, saturated, and therefore powerless in absorption. Due to a lack of control of the water that passes through the pipe networks, mostly clogged with garbage, part of the water spreads in the streets and the other part goes into the rivers and into the sea which in the process produce floods in the municipalities downstream and then goes to the coast already congested by the brutal occupation of low-income people [5, 6].
Then comes the environmental challenge, which is linked to the growing pace, to the demographic explosion of Port-au-Prince. Environmental degradation makes people vulnerable to natural and technological disasters in all respects. Port-au-Prince is founded on an exceptional site between sea and hill: the bay of Gonave and the foothills of the Selle range, surrounded by two very fertile agricultural plains, in this case that of Cul-de-sac and that of Léogane. Despite these oppressive geographical conditions, the city suffers from a degraded environment: very few green spaces, the urbanization of the slopes of the mornes, the polluted coastline occupied by unhealthy neighborhoods, the poor quality of the built, the generalization of precarious housing and a saturated capital.
The island of Haiti occupies a special position on the border between the Caribbean and North American tectonic plates. The first seismic threat described in Haiti was in the 18th century, according to the historian Moreau de Saint-Mery (1750...1819) the first census of natural disasters in what was then called the island of Dominican Republic, during the French and Spanish occupations reports 18 earthquakes felt, those of October 18, 1751, November 21, 1751 and June 3, 1770 whose damage was major in Port-au-Prince. The most recent devastating earthquake in the country was on January 12, 2010 with a magnitude of 7.0 to 7.3 Mw on the Richter scale of which little seismic energy was released which still caused more than 280,000 deaths, 300,000 injured and 1.3 million homeless and at the end of the month 52 aftershocks with a magnitude of about 4.5 Mw by the American Geological Survey were recorded. Whether it is fine rain or torrential rain, the metropolitan area of Port-au-Prince is full of water, which causes heavy flooding in the surrounding municipalities, because the pipes are saturated with garbage due to lack of cleaning or poor management of solid waste [7, 9].
The last challenge is related to finances that would provide more infrastructure, more efficient. We need creative funding where we need to stimulate existing local funding, we need to make sure that we stimulate the increase in land values; generate a sustainable income stream for the operation and maintenance of urban infrastructure. Have approaches where capital expenditures are well conducted in the effective maintenance of infrastructure. And, without this maintenance, they fall apart, are in a state of disrepair, and services begin to collapse.
Conclusion. These main challenges help determine the quality of urban services with regard to Port-au-Prince's infrastructure: the demographic challenge, with the pace of growth as the main problem to be solved; socio-economic challenges, with the imperative to implement progressive policies in the capital; environmental challenges, and finally financial challenges. Considering these challenges as contributing factors to the quality of services, we could provoke a transformation of the capital but first of all its urban planning is necessary and even pressing since
we are witnessing its self-destruction and if no action is taken, we could see a slaughter of the capital. The urgent work would therefore be to stop urban sprawl, to provide Port-au-Prince with an urban plan, for good decision-making aimed at achieving economic, social, cultural and environmental objectives and to shape the physical living environment of citizens. Ultimately, to develop Port-au-Prince and compensate for the damage mentioned, political leaders must form a real government of national unity with the objective of putting the country back on the path of development, to have a global vision of development. In order to plan the future use of space, with the aim of undertaking sustainable actions; Haitian planning policies too often result in clogging or tinkering procedures to be truly effective.
Fig. 4. Seismic hazard of the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden fault in Haiti inferred from palaeoseismology,
nature geoscience
References:
1. Slumization of Port-au-Prince. URL: https://ayibopost.com/et-si-port-au-prince-arrivait-a-manquer-deau-cest-une-possibilite/ (date of access: 03.10.2022).
2. Overexploitation of the boreholes of the Plaine du Cul-du-Sac. URL: https:// www.alterpresse.org/spip.php?article28251 (date of access: 02.10.2022).
3. Two energy sources used in Haiti: URL: http://www.edh.ht/centrales-hydro.php (date of access: 02.10.2022).
4. Energy capacity. URL: https:// www.privacyshield.gov/article?id=Haiti -Energy (date of access 31.09.2022).
5. Solid waste management. URL: https:// www.undp.org/fr/haiti/blog/gestion-des-déchets -solides-réflexion-sur-l'application-de-la-théorie-des-3-r-en-hai'ti (date of access: 31.09.2022).
6. Wastewater drainage. URL: https:// www.lenational.org/post_article.php?pol=889 (date of access: 30.09.2022).
7. Vulnerability of the capital. URL: https:// ayiti.unice.fr/sismo-ayiti/votre-communaute/le-risque-sismique-en-haiti.html (date of access: 30.09.2022).
8. Devastating earthquake. URL: https:// fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Séisme_de_2010_en_Haïti#cite_note-4 (date of access 30.09.2022).
9. Devastating earthquake in Port-au-Prince. URL: https://ayiti.unice.fr/sismo-ayiti/ votre-communaute/le-risque-sismique-en-haiti.html (date of access 30.09.2022).
Контактные данные:
Karina A. Kurochkina, [email protected] Sabine Dussap, [email protected] Natalia M. Zatolokina, [email protected]
© Kurochkina, K.A., Dussap Sabine, Zatolokina, N.M., 2022
ПРОБЛЕМЫ ГОРОДСКОЙ ИНФРАСТРУКТУРЫ СТОЛИЦЫ ГАИТИ ПОРТ-О-ПРЕНСА
Курочкина К А, Дуссап Сабин, Затолокина Н.М. *
Белгородский государственный технологический университет им. В. Г. Шухова, г Белгород, Россия
*E-mail: nm-zatolokina@yandex. ш
Аннотация. Отсутствие услуг городской инфраструктуры в столице Гаити Пор-о-Пренсе является источником постоянных проблем, которые сказываются на благосостоянии населения, его экономических перспективах и качестве жизни. Пространственный анализ ситуации в Порт-о-Пренсе изучает пространственное местоположение и взаимодействие с новой планировкой, новой организацией территории, что позволяет лучше понять, что происходит в столице, и решить сложные задачи. Быстрый рост населения в Порт-о-Пренсе представляет собой критический фактор. В связи с притоком населения, вызывающим резкое падение всех аспектов жизни, происходит самоуничтожение столицы, в связи с тем, что природные ресурсы эксплуатируются массово, что может привести к нехватке питьевой воды и электроэнергии, отсутствует служба вывоза мусора и постоянно происходят тяжелые повторяющиеся стихийные бедствия.
Ключевые слова: городская инфраструктура, Пор-о-Пренс, трущобы, исход из сельских районов, плохое управление, территориальное планирование.
Литература:
1. Slumization of Port-au-Prince. URL: https://ayibopost.com/et-si-port-au-prince-arrivait-a-manquer-deau-cest-une-possibilite/ (date of access: 03.10.2022).
2. Overexploitation of the boreholes of the Plaine du Cul-du-Sac. URL: https:// www.alterpresse.org/spip.php?article28251 (date of access: 02.10.2022).
3. Two energy sources used in Haiti: URL: http://www.edh.ht/centrales-hydro.php (date of access: 02.10.2022).
4. Energy capacity. URL: https:// www.privacyshield.gov/article?id=Haiti -Energy (date of access 31.09.2022).
5. Solid waste management. URL: https:// www.undp.org/fr/haiti/blog/gestion-des-
déchets-solides-réflexion-sur-l'application-de-la-théorie-des-3-r-en-haïti (date of access: 31.09.2022).
6. Wastewater drainage. URL: https:// www.lenational.org/post_article.php?pol=889 (date of access: 30.09.2022).
7. Vulnerability of the capital. URL: http s://ayiti.uni ce.fr/si smo-ayiti/votre-communaute/l e-risque- sismique-en-haiti.html (date of access: 30.09.2022).
8. Devastating earthquake. URL: https:// fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Séisme_de_2010_en_Haïti#cite_note-4 (date of access 30.09.2022).
9. Devastating earthquake in Port-au-Prince. URL: https://ayiti.unice.fr/sismo-ayiti/ votre-communaute/le-risque- sismique-en-
Contacts:
Курочкина Карина Александровна, e-maii.ru: [email protected]
Дуссап Сабин, [email protected]
Затолокина Наталья Михайловна, [email protected]
© Курочкина К.А., Дуссап Сабин, Затолокина Н.М., 2022
Kurochkina, K.A., Dussap Sabine, Zatolokina, N.M., 2022. Problems of the urban infrastructure of the Haitian Capital Port-au-Prince. Vector of Geosciences. 5(3). Pp. 30-35. DOI: 10.24412/2619-0761-2022-3-30-35.
Курочкина К.А., Дуссап Сабин, Затолокина Н.М. Проблемы городской инфраструктуры столицы Гаити Порт-о-Пренса // Вектор ГеоНаук. 2022. Т.5. №3. С. 30-35. DOI: 10.24412/2619-0761-2022-3-30-35.
