Protecting the Lake Péligre Watershed and Energising Local Government
- The note argues that Lake Péligre's hydroelectric and irrigation potential is being reduced by heavy sediment inflows from the upper Artibonite watershed.
- It treats massive dredging as materially impractical and prioritizes reducing new sediment inputs before considering lake dredging.
- The proposed intervention is sustainable agroforestry based on vetiver hedgerows across slopes to retain soil, improve infiltration, restore fertility and support perennial or annual high-value crops.
- Vetiver is presented as non-invasive because its flowers are sterile and it lacks creeping roots, while also resisting drought, flooding, temporary submersion and fires.
- The note links watershed protection to rural electrification by pelletizing or gasifying vetiver biomass for village-scale energy.
- It proposes a 1,000-hectare pilot in Belladère and Lascahobas within the Onde Verte sub-watershed and broader Péligre basin.
This seven-page note by Joel Ducasse addresses the protection of the Lake Péligre watershed together with the energisation of local government. Its framing is quantitative: the Artibonite basin upstream of Lake Péligre covers 4,200 square kilometers, is severely eroded, and carries on average between 1,200 and 1,400 cubic meters of alluvium per square kilometer, which the note reports as around 5 million cubic meters a year on the figures of the CIAT technical adviser - a volume that substantially reduces the dam's hydroelectric potential. It illustrates the effect of vetiver contour ramps on soil and water loss. Short as it is, it makes the link between upstream soil conservation and downstream electricity generation explicit, which most of the watershed material here leaves implied.
How to cite
Joel Ducasse, 2014, Protecting the Lake Péligre Watershed and Energising Local Government, https://agripubhaiti.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Protection_BV_Lac_Peligre_et_Ener-gisation_Collectivites_locales__.pdf