More than half of Haitians live below the poverty line, facing huge daily challenges because of inadequate infrastructure and resources as well as entrenched violence generated by criminal gangs and no stable government.
Waterborne diseases remain a leading cause of death in Haiti, with recent statistics showing more than a third of the population still lacking access to safe drinking water, while nearly two-thirds of Haitians face inadequate or nonexistent sanitation services. Facilities are often inaccessible to people with disabilities, further worsening public health issues. The widespread dumping of human waste and pollutants into rivers — the country’s primary source of water for drinking, cooking, and cleaning — leads to severe contamination. The critical lack of clean water is among the country’s most pressing issues amid the ongoing political and security crises.
Although organizations like Unicef continue to support water and sanitation efforts, Haiti’s persistent instability and violence pose serious barriers, making access to clean water an urgent, unresolved threat to public health and stability.
Desalination — the process of removing salt from seawater — could be a viable solution to water shortages. Such water can be made suitable for drinking and irrigation, but desalination is highly energy-intensive. A more sustainable approach would be using solar-powered desalination, which could address both energy and water needs. The costs of solar power and energy storage systems have dropped significantly over the years generally, making this a more feasible and eco-friendly option for tackling Haiti’s water crisis.
Haiti receives an average annual rainfall of 1,400 to 2,000 millimeters, or 55 to 79 inches, which, with the right infrastructure, could provide a reliable source of clean water for the population. However, this potential remains largely untapped, as the international community and the Haitian government itself have overlooked the need for proper water collection systems and related support.
The escalation of violence in Haiti in the last several years has triggered severe economic crises, driving up prices and increasing poverty. Gangs have disrupted food supplies, sometimes paralyzing the economy by threatening civilians and establishing widespread roadblocks, known locally as peyi lok, as a tactic to halt businesses. In Artibonite, Haiti’s main rice-producing region and a growing hub for gang violence, a gang leader issued multiple threats on social media, warning that farmers returning to their fields would be killed.
As a result, the World Food Program reported a major reduction in cultivated land in Artibonite in 2022. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, by 2023, agricultural production had plummeted, with maize yields down 39 percent, rice down 34 percent and sorghum down 22 percent, compared with the five-year average.
In these challenging circumstances, the transfer of technology for indoor vertical farming, recirculating-aquaculture systems and saline-resistant rice production for coastal communities could play an important role in enhancing Haiti’s food security. Indoor farms, successfully used in Singapore and the Netherlands, can grow produce year-round with minimal water and land. An initial investment of $100,000 to several million dollars would be required, ideally supported through partnerships with organizations like the World Food Program, Haitian communities and nongovernmental organizations. Such collaborations would be essential to secure sustainable funding, foster community involvement and provide the expertise for the projects’ success.
Recirculating-aquaculture systems enable fish farming in controlled environments to be set up, reducing strain on marine resources. This approach has been effective in the United States and Norway, and establishing a small-scale system in Haiti could cost around $200,000 to $500,000. Saline-resistant rice, such as grown in flood-prone areas in China and Bangladesh, could also benefit coastal Haitian communities. Projects could be launched through partnerships with agricultural research institutions, the International Atomic Energy Agency and the Food and Agriculture Organization.
Lab-grown meat is another innovation for addressing protein shortages, though high costs, currently $10 to $20 per kilogram, present longer-term options. Lab-grown meat production has seen early success in countries like the US, where regulations and research funding support innovation.
The Internet of things — a network of physical devices that can communicate with each other and with the cloud without human intervention — and artificial intelligence could support agriculture in Haiti by enabling remote monitoring and efficient management. These technologies, already used in other developing regions, could cost $50,000 to $100,000 for a small-scale operation, supported by partnerships with tech companies and local telecom providers.
While the UN Security Council extended the mandate of the Kenya-led multinational security force to combat gang violence in Haiti, the situation is deteriorating further, complicating the delivery of vital humanitarian aid like clean water, food and medicine. Providing security alone is obviously a first start to resolving Haiti’s deeper socioeconomic issues, and a comprehensive approach combining immediate relief with long-term strategies for economic development, political reform and climate resilience is essential.
By addressing both the symptoms and sources of Haiti’s crises through commitments to scientific innovations and investments, the international community can also help guide the country toward stability and self-sufficiency. The Haitians deserve the most sophisticated approaches to meeting their most basic needs as soon as possible.
This is an opinion essay.
We welcome your comments on this article. What are your thoughts on scientific advances for Haiti's infrastructure?
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Amaj Rahimi-Midani is a Costa Rican-Iranian environmental scientist and founder of Poseidon-AI. He collaborates with international organizations to carry out sustainable practices in water, soil, aquaculture and fisheries worldwide.
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I read the kind comments from these two esteemed members with immense enthusiasm and pride. I wholeheartedly agree that the solutions discussed could also be applied in places like Palestine, Ukraine, and Sudan. However, not all media outlets are as open and neutral as PassBlue. From Le Figaro to The New York Times, La Nación to Hamshahri, and from The Chosun Ilbo to Deutsche Welle, I have tried to bring attention to the most pressing issues of our time. Unfortunately, time and again, politics have overshadowed rational solutions.
I faced a choice: to “insist, persist, and consist” in advocating for concrete and positive solutions, or to change course and offer politically palatable word salad. I chose the former, and words can’t fully express my gratitude to PassBlue, especially Dulcie, for patiently supporting me in refining this piece and staying true to my convictions.
In both war and peace, I have one purpose: to support, empower, and elevate the livelihoods of indigenous and vulnerable communities through innovative, multidisciplinary solutions. For now, let’s celebrate this achievement together, and tomorrow, let’s continue the work that lies ahead.
Amaj, I fully agree with you that the Western Media and social media are completely controlled by its politicians and the best example is the reporting on the incidents in Amsterdam between the Israeli Hooligans and the pro-Palestinian movement for peace in the middle-East. A real shame as democracy, free-press and freedom of speech are dying slowly in Europe, Canada and the United States.
Amaj thank you for the analysis and proposed solutions. Indeed I agree with the point that Haiti can benefit from the culture of saline-resistant rice as done in Bangladesh, but instead of sending these concret solutions to Haiti, the world has sent many times Peace Keepers where there is no war and from Bangladesh cholera was introduced which resulted in a very deadly epidemic killing thousands of Haitians! Therefore let us start thinking that FORCE is not the solution of the Haitian problems and leu us consider gangs as the consequences of a situation and not the causes. Bringing saline resistant rice to Haiti, investing in water management and solar energy for agricultural development and other energie-needed activities will boost productivity, economic growth and bring hope and peace in Haiti rather than the presence of Kenyan police forces.
Let us be realistic and learn from our mistakes since the coup d’état against President Jean Bertrand Aristide in 1991 the beginning of the nightmare and political instability. Answering to killings by killings is not the solution anywhere and in Haiti peace and hope will come back only through the roll-out of a comprehensive economic development plan including: social reinsertion, strengthening of economic development and democratic institutions and practices, and fighting corruption. Spending money on this plan will be money well-spent rather than paying high salaries to policemen or peace keepers!
Editor’s note: Cholera was not introduced into Haiti by Bangladesh peacekeepers but by Nepali.
Indeed but the same clade of cholera virus is circulating in Bangladesh, India and Nepal!
The lack of security and governance in Haiti makes any long-term investment very difficult since material is often stolen and maintenance problematic. I see security as a precondition to any type of large-scale program. Also, peacekeeping forces are not there to kill but to protect and, with all its flaws, the exit of the previous UN mission MINUSTAH can clearly be identified as the beginning of the collapse that we are still observing these days. I wish good luck to the author to implement its ideas in a country where it is hard to make a radar work
The many UN peacekeeping missions in Haiti have not achieved any results in terms of security or development since 1991, that is a reality, their presence contributed to make the rich richer and the poor poorer, therefore my strong recommendation is to have the United Nations investing for development (economic and social) programs meanwhile disarmament and social integration of gangs members will take place to achieve security through hope in a future and peace. The precondition is to implement many strategies together and not to put security as a first and precondition as this will result only in killings between police and gangs as we have seen last week airplanes being shut at and the closing down of the airport Tousain Louverture!
These recommendations for Haiti could also be very relevant to Gaza, and key to rapid recovery once the war ends. For that, the USA should lift the veto on Palestine’s UN membership ASAP: a challenge to Biden who now has “freedom to act in the Middle East” as Amb. Robert Hunter wrote in yesterday’s Financial Times; or to Trump, as a prelude to revive and expand the Abraham Accords.
A very good point as this will help the USA to go down in history with a great success!