Water In Haiti

Improved Essays
During the 18th century, France possessed the colony known to them as Saint Domingue,

an island in the Caribbean Sea. Possessing valuable resources and optimal conditions for

growing expensive crops such as sugar, France dedicated much of their money into this little

island, allowing Saint Domingue to become the wealthiest colony in this time period. However,

the Haitian slaves revolted against the French colonial rulers, resulting in the first complete

successful slave rebellion in history. However, the cost of the war, natural disasters, and a French

"independence tax" crippled the former colony, leading to an almost instantaneous decline in the

country's wealth and prosperity. Today, Haiti has the shameful title of the poorest country
…show more content…
And

while the tropical storms contribute a little too much water to the country, almost none of that

water is sanitary, leading to a massive problem of horrendous water. A massive majority of the

population cannot receive trustworthy water, leading to the risk of many to drink or attempt to

self clean any water they can manage to collect (Brown). While many people in countries like the

United States, Britain, France, and Canada might not have to worry about whether or not the

water they drink is sanitary, that is a formality that Haiti does not possess. Murky, lukewarm, and

scarce is the water that many Haitians drink regularly. Without the ability to clean it themselves,

they are forced to drink or die, but sometimes drinking the water will give them diseases that

make them wish they had never taken a sip in the first place. Cholera became a terrible problem

in Haiti many years ago, but since has returned to plague the unfortunate who cannot sanitize

their own water. The lack of basic sanitation of water leads to massive cholera outbreaks, easily

obtained via the water the average person drinks on a regular basis (Brown). Painful, deadly,
…show more content…
Stated

previously was the fact that Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, and "the

richest 20% of households earn 64% of the country's total income, while the poorest 20% makes

do with just 1%" ("Extreme poverty drops"). The massive gap in income and distribution of

money is unacceptable and shameful. Haitian elites keep getting richer and richer, while the rest

of the country's population gets barely anything to support themselves. While the rich might not

like redistribution of wealth and money, the government should allow its own people to get some

of the money, instead of it all funneling to those wealthy Haitians. In fact, the Haitian

government has already begun to improve the massive poverty gap, with the percentage of those

living in extreme poverty dropped about 7% nationally, and 15% in the nation's capital, Port-Au-
Prince ("Extreme poverty drops"). The declining rates prove that Haiti's plans are working! If the

government continues with the methods it used to spark those changes, the people of Haiti

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Water is one of the key resources for human survival. Without it, we wouldn’t be able to function and preform our daily activities. Even though water is a free resource, there are still people that have a harder time getting this necessity. These are mostly individuals that live in poorer countries like Mexico, India, and Africa etc. Today, we face the problem of not only poorer countries not being able to attain water, but now large cooperation’s are trying to privatize our drinking water.…

    • 763 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    According to the Washington Post, In 2008, the United States was the 6th ranked in poverty rates, per capita... in the world! This is especially scary since we are one of the highest income counties in the world. 1/5 of the country is in poverty. That is 63,780,000 people. Out of 318,900,000. That is to many…

    • 57 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    This drought is causing fights! In California, we have been in a drought for three years. It has gotten to the point where we are arguing over how we use our ground water and if it should or should not be managed. Furthermore, California should be managing the use of aquifer because people should be able to have enough water for their basic living rights of taking a shower, using the restroom inside the house, and it will also end up saving the environment. Having enough water is truly important for everyone and their lives.…

    • 462 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Water Crisis In America

    • 591 Words
    • 3 Pages

    America’s Water Used for growing food, cleaning, and making up sixty percent of the average human body, water is a basic need of practically all living things. Although not everyone has access to this basic need. As of 2015 it was estimated that 43.1 million people are living in poverty in the states out of 320.9 million. These numbers will continue to grow in population increasing demands to sustain this, but our resources start to dwindle. Water being a main source for everyone has already started to become a problem.…

    • 591 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Flint Water Crisis

    • 793 Words
    • 4 Pages

    On average, Americans “waste 7 billion gallons of clean drinking water a day” (Climate Guest) and 1 trillion gallons of water each year while nearly 1 billion people around the globe (over three times the population size of the United States or one in five people) lack access to safe drinking water. While many people around the world leave faucets running, do not fix leaky pipes, and waste valuable drinking water, “women and children spend 125 million hours each day collecting water” in places such as Africa and Asia, “⅓ of the global population lives without access to a toilet”, and “every 90 seconds, a child dies from a water-related disease” (Water.org). Many nonprofits organizations are trying to find ways to provide safe water to millions…

    • 793 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    People need water to survive. Where there is no water, there will not be life and it’s amazing to me how one can go weeks and even months without food but can only go about 1 week without water (Spector, 2014). Thankfully our planet is made up of 70% water, I’m sure one would say, but unfortunately only 1% of our fresh water is easily accessible with the rest being trapped in ice glaciers so in actuality only 0.007 percent of the planet's water is available to the 6.8 billion people that live on this planet (environment.nationalgeographic.com). The biggest public health concern as related to fresh drinking water is pollution. In developing countries, 70 percent of industrial wastes are dumped untreated into waters, polluting the usable water…

    • 247 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Haitian 2010 Earthquake

    • 1050 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Foreign aid has assisted with long-term solutions by providing 23,000 people in farming communities with tools and seeds, educating 116,000 people about future disasters, and offering medical care particularly to those affected by the Cholera outbreak. With projects such as providing literacy classes for over 60,000 women also implemented, it is clear that foreign aid has significantly assisted the situation. Nevertheless, it is also true that various political and social opinions regard foreign aid as interference, some believing that all donated money should be given directly to the Haitian government rather than aid…

    • 1050 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Drinking Water Injustice

    • 1154 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Water is one of a humans basic rights to live in the world, although many people in the world today do not have access to clean drinking water. Currently third world countries people have to drink unsafe dangerous water if they want any water at all, as there is currently no supply of fresh water in these areas. Manoj Bhargava and Generosity.com are focused on making this injustice in the world end. Both spend their full time and money on this injustice, one has a immediate impact, while one as a more long term impact overtime, In hopes to end the clean drinking water injustice. One of the worlds three basic rights is water but, currently majority of people in third world countries have little to no access to clean drinking water.…

    • 1154 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    I. Introduction The cholera outbreak in Haiti has claimed the lives of over 7,000 Haitians and has sickened over 470,000 since the 2010 earthquake.1 An effective program that Haiti should consider is using a mass vaccination of a new and inexpensive oral cholera vaccine called Shanchol, which has been successful in Odisha, India.2 II. Body of Paper A. The emergence of cholera in Haiti was initiated by a number of existing problems.…

    • 918 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    8 REASONS WHY WE HAVE TO STOP POVERTY NOW Did You Know... About half of the entire people living on earth today are poor The percentage of people living in poverty South Asia Australia South Asia USA India Europe Canada Africa (Sub Saharan) South America 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 1. Because it is the Right Thing to do…

    • 1185 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Haiti, once known as “The Jewel of the Antilles” is now the poorest country in the western hemisphere. How can there be such a juristic drop off from wealth and prosperity? There are many factors including poor soil health, lack of knowledge and literacy, a long history of political oppression, and a large population in a small country. However, the root cause of poverty in Haiti is human greed and power.…

    • 770 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Water has proven to be essential to everyday lives; yet many individuals in the world lack access to clean water. People need water to survive because this resource provides many benefits in keeping the human body vigorous. Benefits that comes to drinking water is that it helps maintain the balance of bodily fluids (Zelman). A study shows that the human body is composed of 60% of water, in which it helps in digesting,absorbing, or preserving normal body temperature. Other benefits that are included in water is that it helps energize the muscles or maintaining the skin (Zelman).…

    • 935 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Absolute poverty is a condition where people lack the wealth or means to cater to their basic needs, while the imbalance between people of different sex, class and status is inequality. Both states have negative impacts on a country, affecting a large number of the population, hence it is necessary to develop strategies to curb them. According to the World Bank (2016), 66% of the population in developing countries survived on less than $3.10 per day in 1990 and the percentage of people living in the same condition fell to 35% in 2012. Although a large percentage of people still live in poverty, there has been substantial decrease in the percentage of poverty between 1990 and 2012 and improvement can be attributed to foreign development aid.…

    • 1525 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Thailand Situation Analysis

    • 6408 Words
    • 26 Pages

    Geographic Areas: The population is mostly rural, concentrated in the rice growing areas of the central, northeastern, and northern regions. However, as Thailand continues to industrialize, its urban population - 31.1% of total population, principally in the Bangkok area is continually growing. iv. Migration rates and patterns: 0 migrant(s)/1,000 populations (2006 EST.) v. Ethnic groups: Thai 75%, Chinese 14%, other 11% III.…

    • 6408 Words
    • 26 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Life Without Water Essay

    • 1012 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Water is in everything that we do. As you wake up in the morning one of the first things that you do is brush your teeth, another may be showering, or washing clothes that you plan on wearing that day. All of those daily activities are dependent on water. We as humans are completely and solely dependent on water as well. A human can survive only a very limited amount of time without water before our bodies begin to shut down.…

    • 1012 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays