The Péligre Dam is a gravity dam located off the Centre department on the Artibonite River of Haiti. At it is the tallest dam in Haiti. The dam was created as a flood-control and an energy-providing measure in the Artibonite River Valley during the 1950s, as part of the Artibonite Valley Agricultural Project. This dam impounds Lake Péligre.
Despite its purpose of providing energy throughout Haiti, many contend that the energy provided by the dam is not distributed equitably. Furthermore, the dam has had significant environmental, social, and health consequences on the local people, who were forced to relocate as a result of the dam's completion. These are points of concern to academics, journalists, and human rights activists who, noting heavy North American involvement in the planning and construction of the dam, believe that neoliberal influences may be at play.
Background
Geography The Péligre dam is in the Artibonite watershed, the largest hydrographic basin in Haiti.
Composition and dimensions The power plant contains three 17 MW Francis turbine-generators for an installed capacity of 51 MW.
Initial building and purpose The Péligre Dam was proposed as a means to rehabilitate the agricultural lands of the Central Plateau through control of floods as well as to generate hydroelectricity to fuel the industrial expansion of Haiti.Jennifer Wells, "A dam for the people, and A people damned", ‘’Toronto Star’’, November 21, 2010 The Artibonite would become the first source of hydroelectric power and irrigation water in that nation.Sébastien Gachot, Haiti: Water Management Program in the Artibonite Basin. ‘’Document of the Inter-American Development Bank’’, HA-L1087 The dam was popularized throughout the country as a mechanism for increased crop yields via controlled irrigation. Rice grown for export, in particular, was the target of this irrigation intervention. Also, it was believed that the generation of a reliable supply of electricity from the dam would drive economic growth and reduce social disparity.
Planning and construction of the dam was heavily influenced by the United States of America. The dam was nicknamed the “Little TVA” after the Tennessee Valley Authority, because of its purpose of providing energy for all of Haiti. The dam was designed by the United States Army Corps of Engineers. It was funded by the Export Import Bank of the United States. Construction on the dam was overseen by engineer André A. Loiselle. The dam was completed in 1956 by the US Army Corps of Engineers and Brown & Root, creating Lake Péligre (essentially a large reservoir) in the process.
Power generation and distribution The Péligre Hydroelectric Plant, which is the power plant associated with the dam, went online in 1971, 15 years after the completion of the dam itself. It is operated by the Electricité d’Haiti, or Electricity of Haiti (EDH), which reports to the Ministry of Public Works, Transport and Communications in Haiti. The main purpose of Electricité d’Haiti is electricity generation; under its management, the Péligre Hydroelectric Plant supplies 30% of the country's electricity.
Despite the plant's purpose to provide reliable energy to all of Haiti, there are some questions as to whether or not the dam achieves that goal in reality. Lumas Kendrick, of the Inter-American Development Bank states that, of the energy that is generated by the dam, over half is lost due to poor power lines, defective transformers, and billing issues. Of the energy that is generated and distributed, it is limited in its ability to reach all of Haiti, as only 12 per cent of the country has electrical wires. These areas with electricity are concentrated around urban centers, thereby reducing the overall impact of the hydroelectric power on rural development in the country.
Recent developments
Silting Silting has greatly reduced the operational capacity of the dam for the generation of electricity. The upper Artibonite watershed is faced with issues of severe erosion, caused by deforestation and agriculture. The erosion is estimated at 1,305 metric tons per km2 per year in the watershed, on average. The problems of heavy deforestation and soil erosion in rainy seasons have caused a large amount of sediment to become trapped in the dam, reducing its functionality. Additionally, the silt in the Péligre reservoir has decreased the reservoir storage capacity from 600 million cubic metres to 300 MCM in 60 years. Reforestation and erosion control methods discussed before the dam's creation have not been carried out.
As a result of the dam's reduced functioning, Haiti's electricity generation fell by more than 30 per cent from 2004–2010.
Rehabilitation The dam and power plant were damaged during the 2010 Haiti earthquake. With the functional lifespan of the dam coming to a close, the Inter-American Development Bank and several other international organizations decided to fund a three-year, forty-eight million dollar rehabilitation for the dam, to be undertaken by Alstom and Compagnie de Montages Electriques a l’Exportation. This project is intended by the Inter-American Development Bank to increase the lifespan of the dam and power station by another twenty years.
Controversy Despite being called a technical success by donor agencies and NGOs, the Péligre Dam is considered in many local, academic, and humanitarian circles to be a failure, due to the destruction of local communities and the displacements of residents.Mark Schuller, Seeing Like a “Failed” NGO: Globalization’s Impacts on State and Civil Society in Haiti., ‘’PoLAR’’, 2007 30: 67-89.
Energy distribution In terms of power distribution, it has been asserted that the electricity from the dam is mainly distributed to agribusinesses, foreign-owned factories, and homes of the wealthier class in Port-au-Prince.Tracy Kidder, Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure the World. New York: Random House. 2003. Additionally, the continued energy starvation of rural residences is considered to contribute to the low development indicators in rural parts of the country, which are linked to lack of access to clean water, energy poverty, and insecurity.Paul Sullivan "Perspective: Water, Energy, Economy, Poverty, and Haiti.", Circle of Blue Water News, 20 Jan 2010
Relocation The dam is set in the Péligre basin of the Central Plateau in Haiti. This area is home to several hundred thousand rural people.
As a result of the completion of the dam in 1956, thousands of families were forced to flee their fertile land in the Artibonite Valley due to flooding caused by the Péligre Dam. These families, all of which were poor, rural peasant farmers, were forced to move to either seek employment in the city or to retreat into the less-fertile highlands above Lac Péligre. The majority received no compensation for the land they lost.Fawzi. M.C. S. et al., Factors associated with forced sex among women accessing health services in rural Haiti: implications for the prevention of HIV infection and other sexually transmitted diseases. Social Science & Medicine (6)679-689, 2005 Some also did not have access to public water or electricity. Farming in the hillsides is extremely difficult due to erosion, and famine and malnutrition constantly threaten the migrants.
According to personal testimonies collected by Dr. Paul Farmer working in Haiti, these displaced farming families never were subject to a properly enforced resettlement plan, instead being forced to migrate at a moment's notice when the water began to rise.Paul Farmer. Global Health Equity. American Medical Association Virtual Mentor (6)4. Apr 2004. Many farmers were not even aware of the building of the dam, though it was purported to be a part of a “poverty reduction program.” “Pitfalls in Global Health Work”. United for Sight. Web. Accessed 1 Nov. 2014
Environmental effects The dam was considered to be an environmentally friendly alternative to other sources of energy in Haiti, including the use of charcoal briquettes and firewood, which massively deforested the country. However, there are significant environmental effects of the dam itself on the locals. In addition to the usual environmental impact of reservoirs, the flooding caused by the dam has prompted the relocation of farming families, and there have been extremely high levels of deforestation and erosion on the hillsides where these farmers now reside.
Furthermore, because the primary interest of Electricité d'Haiti is generation of electricity, little consideration in water management decisions is given to flood mitigation in the watershed below the dam. Therefore, large water releases that cause flooding are common. These floods cause agricultural and infrastructural losses in the irrigated district, as well as impacting the local ecosystems and tributary flow regimes.
Health effects Following the construction of the dam, rates of morbidity and mortality among the displaced population have risen significantly. The families who were relocated have experienced high TB rates and increased risk for HIV infection. In addition, there are many adverse acute and chronic health effects associated with poverty that may have resulted in these areas.D.A. Leon and G. Walt. Poverty, inequality, and health: an international perspective. New York: Oxford University Press. 2001 In one study it was found that women in this particular region of Haiti tend to be more economically dependent on their husbands and partners than other women in Haiti, as a result of the extreme poverty. Therefore, this study found that these women are often subject to increased risk of forced sex, which itself is related to a number of negative health outcomes, including risk of HIV infection and other Sexually Transmitted Diseases, as well as increased chances of having an unplanned pregnancy. In another study, it is suggested that the impacts of the dam on changes in water regimes in the Meye Tributary System of the Artibonite River may also be linked to the 2010 Cholera outbreak in Haiti.D. Lantagne, G. Balakrish Nair, C. Lanata, A. Cravioto. The Cholera Outbreak in Haiti: Where and how did it begin. Current Topics in Microbiology and Immunology. DOI: 10.1007/82_2013_331. 2013.
To worsen matters, international forces have largely neglected poor Haitians in need of health care, which exacerbated the already low ability of Haiti to provide sufficient medical resources and care.
Social effects The effects of this dam and the resulting relocation of towns have had impacts on culture of the locals. The primary sources of income for 150,000 rural families in the Artibonite watershed, upstream of the dam, are livestock farming, charcoal production, and agriculture. However, the dam has left many of the rural families landless and living in a deteriorating local economy. As a result, the Péligre basin of Haiti is particularly affected by poverty compared to the rest of the country. Dr. Paul Farmer describes a sense of unfairness that permeates the mentality of the displaced refugees. Displaced residents are reported to look back on their life before the relocation as one of bountiful harvests and years of plenty. Now, these displaced people are some of the poorest in the world, and many blame their poverty on the dam, which brought them neither electricity nor water. According to Farmer, these people almost unanimously believe that the dam project has destroyed their old way of life, benefiting the distant city of Port-au-Prince instead.
Academic critiques For some, the instance of the Péligre Dam exemplifies an international development system that treats poor humans as means, not ends, with rich countries and corporate leaders considered to be more important than the poor people themselves. This perspective reflects neoliberal and neocolonial viewpoints on the poor of Haiti.
Paul Farmer