Environment &Mental Health &NGOs &WASH &water Bill Brieger | 21 Aug 2024 08:33 am
Haiti: Addressing lead exposure in a low- or middle-income country, a multipronged approach
Mickelder Kercy (mkercy1) posted this entry on lead exposure in Haiti in the class blog of the course, Social and Behavioral Foundations of Primary Health Care at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Graph Data Source: American Heart Association
Recent studies conducted in Haiti revealed that lead exposure increases the risk of hypertension, a major cardiovascular or non-communicable disease. Among children, lead is responsible for several mental and behavioral disorders. Sources of lead exposure includes contaminated drinking water, paint, and batteries.
Laws have been enacted to regulate the prevention and management of exposure to environmental toxicants. These laws mandate institutions to supply safe water, ministry of health to provide adequate care, and companies to sell and safely dispose of their products without harm to population members. Currently, these overarching laws are not being implemented due to political instability, poor governance at the national and municipality levels, and deteriorating socio-economic conditions nationwide.
Several initiatives have been taken that could address lead exposure in Haiti:
- The Ministry of the Environment (MdE) sought the financial assistance of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) to improve the drinking water system.
- The Global Environment Facility (GEF) has allocated $4.5 million from the Least Developed Countries Fund (LDCF) to the Ministry of the Environment project to help strengthen policies, regulatory bodies, and organizations in support of the management, supply, and access to clean drinking water (SDG 6) in Haiti starting 2023.
- The Presidential Transitional Council (CPT) plans to budget $7,590,221 for waste management in the capital of Haiti.
Current initiatives are promising stirring up among population members the optimistic view that they could signal a departure from decades of inefficiency and ineffectiveness in government affairs. As recommended,
- The Ministry of the Environment (MdE) and Presidential Transitional Council (CPT) should demonstrate accountability, transparency, and proficiency in current projects.
- The Presidential Transitional Council (CPT) should prioritize waste management according to international standards in the triage and disposal of hazardous wastes such as lead-based batteries.
- The Ministry of Public Health and Population (MSPP) should promote lead exposure prevention in businesses and at the population level, and management across all primary health care facilities.
- Sustainable lead exposure mitigation is a necessity. Based on current human capital and financial resources, the MdE and MSPP could potentially seek out-of-country technical assistance from
- The Lead Exposure Elimination Project to inventory lead-based paints and reformulate them into safer products nationwide, and
The Pure Earth to train employees in the Initial Site Screening (ISS) protocol application to update current maps of lead contaminated sites across all 10 departments in Haiti.