Project Lead(s): Sasha Kramer
SOIL Haiti will build and install safe and hygienic toilet facilities for up to 6,000 people in Haiti’s vulnerable urban settlements, thanks to new funding from Grand Challenges Canada and partners.
What makes SOIL innovative is the ecological way that it eliminates waste. SOIL collects and transports waste from its “EkoLakay” toilets to a local composting waste treatment facility where it is safely transformed into rich, organic, and agricultural-grade compost.
SOIL has already installed toilets in more than 900 households, providing ecological sanitation services to over 5,000 people, while also producing rich, organic compost to serve as a natural resource for Haiti’s badly-depleted soils.
Prior to 2010, there were no government-run waste treatment facilities in Haiti, and human waste was left completely untreated.
Haiti has the highest rate of childhood diarrhea in the world and is currently battling the largest and most virulent cholera outbreak in recent global history. Diarrhea caused by waterborne pathogens aggravates an already severe nutrition crisis in Haiti, where nearly half of the population is undernourished and agricultural production has steadily declined over the past decades due to reductions in soil fertility.
With transition-to-scale funding, SOIL will focus on the continued development of its EkoLakay toilet production and compost business, as well as further refinement of its business model.
Scaling Partners: Grand Challenges Canada; American Red Cross.