The COVID-19 pandemic’s emphasis on handwashing as a primary prevention measure threw into stark relief one of Haiti’s most fundamental infrastructure failures: the majority of the population lacked reliable access to clean running water. For health authorities trying to promote handwashing as a key public health measure, the message rang hollow in communities where water came from vendors, was collected from communal taps with long waiting lines, or was drawn from sources of questionable quality.
The water access gap was not news to those who had been working on development in Haiti for years, but the pandemic gave it new urgency and new international visibility. A public health campaign premised on handwashing could not succeed in a population that lacked the most basic precondition — water — for implementing the recommended behavior.
Emergency water trucking operations were expanded in some areas to improve access during the critical early pandemic period, but the logistics and cost of trucked water made it an unsustainable long-term solution. The fundamental investment needed was in water infrastructure — wells, pipes, treatment systems — that the political crisis had consistently disrupted and deferred.
Water sector organizations used the COVID moment to push for renewed investment in Haiti’s water infrastructure, arguing that the pandemic had demonstrated with devastating clarity that water access was not a development luxury but a foundational public health necessity. They called for international donors and the Haitian government to prioritize water infrastructure investment in any post-crisis recovery plan.