The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has approved a $33.5 million grant to help finance an integrated solid waste management program in northern Haiti.

The program’s goal is to boost living conditions in the departments of Cap-Haitien, Limonade, and Quartier Morin by improving management and funding solid waste handling and final disposal infrastructure.

With nearly 1.5 million inhabitants, Haiti’s northern region has one of the fastest demographic growth rates in the country. The area is undergoing a fast urbanization process and suffers from high unemployment, poverty and inequality rates as well as from a chronic deficit in basic public services access.

The new program will provide the region with infrastructure for integrated solid waste management, including the construction of a center for the integrated management of solid municipal and assimilable waste located in Mouchinette. The facility includes a landfill and infrastructure for waste recycling and composting. The project will also finance the purchase and maintenance of a fleet of waste collection trucks and the construction of transfer stations at Cap-Haitien.

In addition, the program contemplates an institutional strengthening plan to generate national and local capabilities in solid waste management and environmental education activities.

It is expected that at the end of the five-year program, nearly 23,000 households will have an efficient solid waste management service capable of processing 130,000 tons of waste, producing 9,000 tons of compost for agriculture, and separating more than 1,800 tons of recyclable waste for commercialization.

The Bank’s grant will be accompanied by $2.36 million in co-financing from the French Development Agency and $1.3 million in local counterpart funds provided by the Government of Haiti.