Rural Sanitation in Haiti – the Zana model for container-based sanitation

This World Bank report presents the ZANA (Friends of Nature) container-based sanitation model implemented in rural Haiti's Artibonite department. Despite reorganization efforts, Haiti faces major sanitation challenges, particularly in rural areas where 83% of the extremely poor reside and one in three households practice open defecation. The ZANA approach was developed by a local activist as part of his doctoral research to reduce open defecation and increase environmental awareness. The ZANA model centers on community organization efforts that engage and train households to implement collective CBS systems. Unlike typical CBS approaches that provide services, ZANA empowers communities to create self-sustaining systems through a five-step community organizing model based on education, readiness assessment, and accountability. Households pay for toilets through community-managed microcredits and provide covering materials, while receiving extensive training on maintenance, disinfection, and safe waste transport to community composting sites. Starting with 25 households in Grande Plaine in 2015, ZANA now serves 444 individuals in 75 households across five communities in the Gros-Morne region. The system processes approximately 17,800 kg of waste into 3,600 kg of compost annually. While households show high satisfaction with minimal turnover, the model faces scalability challenges including reliance on volunteer promoters, limited microloan funding, and requirements for community readiness and commitment. The report concludes that while additional research is needed for broader policy conclusions, the ZANA experience demonstrates CBS potential as an innovative rural sanitation strategy for reducing open defecation, particularly in contexts where communities are willing and able to commit to the process.