Connection to Haitian electricity network①

Before actually trying to connect a house to the Haitian public electricity network it is just impossible to understand how difficult, long and expensive it can be.

Like many other developing country Haiti suffers from a terrible lack of infrastructures. Since the fall of Dictator Jean Claude DUVALIER, alias BB Doc, in 1986 not less than 18 presidents have been in charge of the country in only 26 years!

Actually it is only 13 different presidents that swapped at the head of the government, sometimes for not longer than a week!

This extreme political instability and the country being extremely mountainous and exposed to frequent hurricanes, development of the different public network like electricity or water couldn’t really improve for a rather long time.

In the other hand need for electricity kept increasing the last 3 decades as Haitian population kept growing very fast (6.5 million of inhabitants in 1986, estimated around 10 today) and use of phone, TV, radio or fans for example became more and more generalized.

For all these reasons and probably others less obvious EDH (Electricity of Haiti) never really managed to follow the needs of electricity of the population.

The situation today is actually quite dramatic as people don’t trust the company to be able to provide a decent service and, tired of waiting for months for some technician; tend to connect directly and illegally on the poles!

With so much electricity “stolen”, EDH is for course not able to develop the network and can’t even provide electricity 24/7 in the area where the network is well functioning.

In addition EDH can’t really hire more employees, making maintenance and follow up of illegal connection impossible!

(To be continued)