The mayor of Port-au-Prince refuses to brandish bans against the companies, affirming that he does not want to be accused of the “lack of services that the absence of interventions would cause”
Mobile phone companies, Electricity of Haiti (EDH) and the National Directorate of Drinking Water and Sanitation (DINEPA) are tearing down the streets of the country.
In Puits-Blain, commune of Delmas, a road agent is carrying out repair work.
These interventions – often irregular – leave traces feared by drivers, cause accidents and lastingly attack the quality of the country’s roads.
In October 2023, Julien Jean, a motorcyclist from Port-au-Prince, urgently transported another injured motorcyclist to hospital, following a fall caused by a hole dug on Avenue Lamartinière, near the town of Le Pompier.
The Ministry of Public Works, Transport and Communications was carrying out repairs to an underground canal in the area. In the evening, the motorcycle driver will hit the hole dug by the MTPTC at high speed.
“The vehicle was severely damaged”, but the man did not die, specifies Julien Jean.
Due to the perforated road in Puits-Blain, traffic is slow, also preventing vehicles, including motorcyclists, from moving freely.
Dozens, perhaps hundreds of holes are listed in the streets of Port-au-Prince.
According to the mayor of the town, Lucson Janvier, only the Natcom company regularly submits requests for authorization to intervene on public roads, promising to make repairs.
According to the councilor, institutions such as DINEPA, MTPTC or EDH operate on the roads of the municipality without seeking authorization.
An employee of a company breaks the road in Puits-Blain.
These operations do not give rise to any objection from the town hall. The mayor does not want to brandish prohibitions so as not to be accused, he says, of “the lack of services that the absence of interventions would cause. »
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Long-lasting damage is often recorded.
“The repeated intervention of companies on public roads reduces the durability of the roads,” civil engineer Loubens Anselme analyzes to AyiboPost.
A road in poor condition following its perforation by a company operating in the area.
The municipality of Hinche finds itself a victim of this situation.
The Central Regional Drinking Water and Sanitation Office of DINEPA has been undertaking rehabilitation work on the drinking water supply system in this city since 2021, and normally for ten months.
The project was suspended after The assassination of Jovenel Moïse in July 2021, indicates Job Berçon, member of Mouvman Jèn Lidè Angaje (MOJÈNLAN). It must be resumed soon since DINEPA has chosen a local firm for the continuation of the work after a restricted call for tenders launched in 2023, according to an executive from the institution who requests anonymity. This firm will receive approximately 297 million gourdes to complete the work.
In January 2024, the majority of the streets of downtown Hinche were devastated.
Rue Hamilton Killick crushed in the town center of the commune of Hinche, Center department
This annoys citizens in the area. On April 3, 2023, they signed a petition to demand that DINEPA repair the roads. Their request had no effect.
They also demonstrated in the ransacked streets at the beginning of December last year after having summoned Nesly Gelin, the head of OREPA of the Center, through a lawyer in August 2023.
Near the public square in the town of Hinche, bricks come loose following the perforation of Rue Hamilton Killick by DINEPA
According to Gelin, more than 780,000 US dollars have already been spent on this project, the tender for which was won by the Spanish firm INCATEMA in November 2019.
From July 2021, the company will abandon the project without completing the work, financed to the tune of 340 million gourdes by Spanish cooperation.
Near the Ste Thérèse Hospital in the town of Hinche, bricks come loose, making traffic difficult on Rue Paul Eugène Magloire
AyiboPost’s attempts to contact the central administration of DINEPA and the MTPTC were unsuccessful.
As a temporary solution, the Hinche town hall has filled in the streets of the town, which raises an opaque cloud of dust when vehicles pass by.
Civil engineer Loubens Anselme criticizes the intervention of the INCATEMA firm. For him, the project had to be implemented step by step in order to avoid the demolition of roads and the paralysis of traffic in the city.
A road crushed and in poor condition after the rain, in the area commonly known as Rue 9 in Hinche.
In reality, there is rarely technical collaboration between town halls and companies operating on public roads, continues the engineer.
The work is therefore not carried out according to urban planning, adds Anselme.
As in Port-au-Prince, the dilapidation of Hinche’s roads causes accidents and worsens flooding during rainy seasons, underlines Job Berçon, member of a city organization.
In the city center of the commune of Hinche, a road crushed and in poor condition after the rain, in the area commonly known as Rue 9 in Hinche.
In Puits-Blain, a road in poor condition following its perforation by a company operating in the area.
Construction workers are drilling a road in Puits-Blain.
A road in Puits-Blain perforated by workers from a company operating in the area.
In Delmas 66, a road damaged before motorcycle drivers helped to repair it.
Par Rolph Louis-Jeune & Jean Féguens Regala
Cover image: Near the Sainte-Philomène church in Cap-Haïtien, the road was perforated by DINEPA – September 19, 2024. | Jean Feguens Regala/AyiboPost
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