Problems and current practices of solid waste management in Port-au-Prince (Haiti)

摘要

In Port-au-Prince, the capital city of Haiti, the poorest country of the Caribbean, solid waste has become an important issue. SW management is practiced in a context of rapid demographic growth and dire urban poverty. In the second half of the period covering 1970-1980, the Haitian government adopted an economic strategy of development whose objective was to attract foreign capital and support the establishment of industry based on subcontracting. Centralized mainly in the Port-au-Prince Urban Community, the economic activities resulting from this policy leads to the displacement of the rural population towards the urban area of Port-au-Prince. This migration generates unplanned urbanization and slum development, and the new areas of human settlement produce large quantities of unmanaged SW. The expansion of the urban area covered by Port-au-Prince and the inadequacy of available means for waste collection, combined with a lack of city planning, impede the collection and processing of waste generated by different human activities. Many piles of solid wastes are often found by roadsides, rivers and other open spaces in the city, thus causing significant health and environmental problems.