Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/13379
8A – Daily News – Thursday, July 15, 2010 Dysfunctional dam a symbol of Haiti's post-quake problems BLANCHARD, Haiti (MCT) — For decades the people of this coun- tryside hamlet have lived in the shadow of a hydro- electric dam, never rewarded with its light. The dam has sucked water from farms in the dry season, and drowned the fields in the rainy months. But the power lines run in only one direction, toward the bro- ken capital. "They sell the electric- ity to the bourgeoisie in Port-au-Prince," said Renel Fede, 29, of Blan- chard, an arid hillside community across from the dam in neighboring Peligre. "They don't even come and say to the peo- ple whose land they took, 'We're going to employ them, or their children,' so at least they benefit somehow." Six months after the devastating Jan. 12 earth- quake, Haitians remain hopeful that the billions promised in foreign aid will finally be able to extend the reach of the country's crippled power system to more than 30 percent of the population. But a clear strategy for reviving the critical ener- gy sector — a deteriorat- ing, patchwork electrical grid — is yet to emerge. "Will we continue to just rebuild what was clearly not working in the first place? Or do we want to use this for a new vision?" said Lumas Kendrick, an energy expert with the Inter- American Development Bank, which is financing several electricity pro- jects. For many Haitians, patience is wearing thin. In the northern city of Cap Haitien — where the government had boasted of 24-hour electricity from a new power plant financed by the Venezue- lan government — pro- testers took to the streets last month, hurling rocks, complaining they had lived five months without power. And when blackouts snuffed out TV screens as Brazil's soccer team — Haiti's sentimental favorite — fell to defeat in the World Cup this month, a frustrated radio announcer rebuked the power company by recit- ing the names of dark- ened neighborhoods: "Delmas 95 doesn't have electricity! Place Boyer has no electricity!" Blackouts have become the norm. In recent years, Haiti's state- owned electric company, Electricite d'Haiti, or EDH, has degenerated rapidly, generating 31 percent less power since 2004, according to an IDB report. At the same time, demand has surged, as the population grew to 9 million. Port-au-Prince and other areas that enjoyed 24-hour electricity a gen- eration ago were down to just five to eight hours of power per day — and that was before the earth- quake damaged two sub- stations and knocked down 40 percent of the power lines. The head of EDH has said it will cost at least $40 million to restore the already unreliable power grid to pre-earthquake Walter Michot/Miami Herald/MCT The dam in Blanchard, Haiti, has sucked water from farms in the dry season, and drowned the fields in the rainy months. levels. However, a report from Haiti's Ministry of Finance said some parts of Port-au-Prince had 10 hours of daily electricity by March. "Access to all — we have to have that as the goal, but so far no one has stated that," said Rene Jean-Jumeau, an energy expert with Haiti's Min- istry of Public Works. "We have all of the strate- gies written out. There needs to be clear deci- sions made at the politi- cal level." The chronic power problems have paralyzed Haiti's economy, scaring off potential investors as the international commu- nity seeks to boost private industry to pull Haiti out of the earthquake's wreckage. For example, the unpredictable electricity has discouraged some companies from taking advantage of the recent HOPE legislation, which lowers U.S. trade barriers for Haitian textiles to revive the country's gar- ment industry. Many businesses end up using costly diesel generators, or buying electricity from independent suppliers. "If you are operating an industry and you have power outages, that is a killer," said Carl-Auguste Boisson, CEO of E- Power, an independent power supplier whose new heavy-fuel oil plant is expected to save the government at least $20 million a year. "Because of power outages and grid imbalances, it is not uncommon to find indus- trial companies that pre- fer to produce their own energy." EDH's problems are both physical and finan- cial. The company has no money or equipment to maintain an aging inven- tory of transformers that routinely overheat and fail, Kendrick said. Bro- ken parts can take weeks or months to fix, forcing residents to sleep on their rooftops to get out of the heat. EDH also lacks reli- able meters, so much of the electricity that flows isn't paid for by cus- tomers. Still more power is stolen — nobody can say how much, because EDH can't measure what goes out. In all, EDH loses as much as 57 per- cent of the electricity it produces. When the company does bill customers, it charges less than it costs to produce the electricity. These factors together lead to deficits of up to $100 million a year for the government-owned company, according to a 2009 IDB report. EDH and the head of the Ministry of Public Works refused multiple requests for interviews for this article. "They get 50 cents on the dollar, and that is not a sustainable situation," said Shinji Yamamoto, chief investment officer for infrastructure with the International Finance Corporation, an arm of the World Bank. After the earthquake, the Haitian government asked foreign donors for $157 million to improve the electrical system through 2011 as part of its national recovery plan. But $90 million of that was aimed at filling the electric company's budget hole. The government has said it will need $347 million over the next three years to revamp the energy sector. International donors, who have propped up EDH for decades paying for repairs and deficits, now expect more from Haiti's government than renewed promises of reform. Some are pushing for more private invest- ments, and others com- plete privatization. The government has histori- cally dodged hot-button issues. Before the earthquake, the IDB and World Bank had already committed almost $70 million to the power problem. The cen- terpiece of this plan: a $40 million repair job for the aging Peligre dam, China Buffet CHINESE RESTAURANT Open 7 Days A Week Sunday Buffet Special $ 9.99 COUPON China Buffet Happy Hours Monday Lunch $ All Day $6.99 Tuesday - Saturday 6.99 Dinner $ 9.99 343 S. Main St. Red Bluff 530-529-5888 (No Checks) 10 % off COUPON on dinner only (everyday) Expires 7-31-10 COUPON built in 1956 and turned into a hydroelectric plant in 1971. On paper, the hydro- electric plant is the largest of EDH's seven power plants. But the plant produces less than half of its capacity, because two of its three turbines are clogged with silt. The dam's problems serve as a microcosm of the compounding dilem- mas that face this coun- try: The plant's turbines choke on silt runoff that flows into the reservoir from the barren hillsides, where peasant farmers, seeking wood for fuel, cut down the trees that hold the soil. The silt fills as much as half the reservoir, leav- ing less room for water, requiring more releases in the rainy season when storms can overflow the dam. The water releases often flood farm crops downstream, and send desperate farmers hunt- ing for fuel wood above the dam. And with less water, the plant produces less power. The cycle has been so devastating that some agencies have questioned whether the Peligre plant can be salvaged at all. A 2005 study for the U.S. Agency for International Development said the power plant could be ren- dered useless by 2017 without an aggressive reforestation plan to reduce silt runoff from the hillsides. Nevertheless, the Hait- ian government asked the IDB two years ago to finance repairs at the dam — without any reforesta- tion plans. (OPEC and the German government are also helping to pay for repairs.) The IDB's Kendrick said more recent studies show the silting has slowed, mak- ing the project less of a risk. What's still unclear is when, or if, Haiti's elec- tric company will extend its power lines to over- looked rural communities such as Blanchard — communities that have seen an influx of people returning from Port-au- Prince after the earth- quake turned that city mostly into rubble and tent camps. Before the quake, almost 80 percent of the power produced by EDH went only to Port- au-Prince, according to the USAID study. For the residents of Blanchard, the dam is a symbol of urban arro- gance, drowning their farmland to serve the cap- ital. Blanchard's residents live by candlelight, but they can see the porch lights in nearby Peligre, home of the power plant. "They are always promising that they are going to give us electrici- ty. Months, years pass and no power. It's all just talk," said Saiveur DiClaid, 35, a Blanchard farmer. "Even if you wanted to plant a rice har- vest, you can't. All of our land is underneath water." Farmers dare not plant crops too close to the lake, for fear it will flood in the rainy season, when high waters can kill plants, livestock, and even children who must canoe across the lake to get to school. "We can't even drink the water," 70-year-old farmer Jean Augustin said. Despite the conse- quences for farming com- munities, the Haitian government has tentative- ly approved plans for a second hydroelectric dam on the Artibonite River, to be built by the Brazil- ian government. But it's unclear how the $150 million project will be financed _ or how much farmland will have to be confiscated. "We still don't know how many people would have to be relocated. We were asking this since 2008," said Igor Kipman, Brazil's ambassador to Haiti. "We just need the government to give us the green light." Energy experts say hydroelectric power is needed to reduce the country's reliance on costly diesel, used to fuel most of Haiti's other power plants. Diesel is vulnerable to price fluc- tuations, and a prime tar- get of fuel thieves. But any long-term strategy to increase power must include multiple fuel sources, from solar to biomass, said the World Bank's Yamamoto. "The million-dollar question is what other things you can do in terms of generation capacity," Yamamoto said. Some international donors, including the United States, have quiet- ly pushed the government to privatize the electric company, a longtime source of patronage jobs and corruption, and a drain on Haiti's donor- financed budget. But at the moment, EDH would have little value to private investors because of its poor record collecting revenues or even accounting for its finances. The World Bank and IDB are now working to modernize the electric company's accounting systems, and improve training for its workers in the field. Ultimately, it will be up to the Haitian govern- ment to adopt any mean- ingful reforms to deliver more electricity, aid agencies say. But while the government has called energy its most pressing long-term need, it has been hesitant to make decisions, even about modest proposals. Brazil, for example, offered to give Haiti's government $400,000 to bring power to Boucan Carre, a town near Peli- gre — and the govern- ment has yet to give the Brazilians an answer. The government has also stalled on plans to devel- op alternatives fuels from Jatropha and elephant grass. Haiti will have to invest in all of these methods — new alterna- tive fuels and traditional power sources — if it is to succeed in bringing power to the rest of the country, Yamamoto said. "There is nothing wrong with renewable solar, wind. That's not going to be supplying 100 percent of the energy need," he said. "We will have to think about build- ing coal power plants or importing gas. It's a dilemma." serve beer & wine We now