Expanding Climate-Positive Sanitation in Haiti

In Haiti, Kanaval is a profoundly significant event that features music, food, and lots of dancing. This vibrant event lasts multiple days with people celebrating freely in the streets with masks, floats, and costumes, that reflect Haiti’s rich and beautiful culture. But, even in the midst of Haiti’s biggest party, SOIL was focusing on sanitation! SOIL was proud to be a part of the festivities by providing essential sanitation services in partnership with local authorities and businesses.

Just in time for Kanaval, SOIL rolled out our brand-new mobile toilet container, developed in partnership with the Center for Disease Control (CDC), to ensure that public access to sanitation would be available for the event. SOIL’s toilets did not fail to deliver their usual optimum quality of service and use. The toilets were orderly, well ventilated, smelling sweetly of our beloved “bonzodé” cover material, and fully equipped with hand-washing stations and toilet mangers to ensure that users were both comfortable and treating the toilets with the necessary respect. It was ultimately decided (by our personal panel of judges) that SOIL’s toilets took an indisputable first place in attention to detail, comfort of use, public health safety and environmental accountability!

SOIL’s mobile toilets, similar to our household toilets, use ecological sanitation to process waste and produce compost, ensuring safe management and treatment of waste. The toilets are much better for the environment than traditional port-a-potties, which use harsh chemicals, and are not emptied in safe waste treatment facilities in Haiti. In about six months from now, we can anticipate a fresh batch of Kanaval 2022 compost that’ll help support agriculture in Haiti!

We’re happy that SOIL was able to play a part in this year’s Kanaval celebrations which brought a well-deserved moment of peace, respite and happiness to Cap-Haitien with the help of local partners. In the coming year, SOIL plans to continue to work with local partners and authorities to ensure that safely managed sanitation continues to be provided during public events to support healthy communities.