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DEEP OCEAN WATER SYSTEMS FOR HAITI |
One December morning, a ship Captain set dazzled eyes on a fabled island. "It's a marvel!" cried out the Captain In admiration over the beauty of the bay where his sailing ship had dropped anchor. A crystalline sea, a coast of golden sand surrounded by coconut trees and, in the background, the bright green of the mountains covered with mahogany trees, sapodilla plum trees, tropical apricot trees laden with fruit, and multicolored orchids. The Captain was not Captain Cook, and the island was not the Hawaiian island of Oahu. This occurred on the sixth of December 1492 when Christopher Columbus discovered the pearl of the Antilles, the Caribbean island of Hispaniola which lies between Puerto Rico and Cuba itself located only 90 miles from the Florida Keys. The island of Hispaniola is now divided between Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Haiti is the leeward half of this trade wind Island in the Caribbean and is separated from Cuba by the Windward Passage.
In 1804, Haiti gained its independence from France through the revolt of African slaves who established the French-speaking Republic of Haiti. Throughout the 19th century, because it was deprived of the accessibility provided by the industrial revolution, the nation of liberated slaves was politically and economically isolated. Having missed the train of industrialization, the nation since Its Inception had to survive on the subsistence of nature.
The reliance of Haitians on nature for their subsistence has led to an environmental catastrophe which adds to the other great tragedies being experienced by the country. Because there are few stoves and hardly any electricity or natural gas in the mountainous Haitian landscape, trees are cut for fuel. As a matter of fact, more than 80% of urban households cook with charcoal, while the rural kitchens utilize firewood as fuel. Some 4 million tons of wood are used every year principally for family cooking and, to a lesser extent, for industrial heating; this means that about 50 million trees are felled annually, resulting in a net loss of 30 million trees per annum since every year 10 million are replanted and another 10 million (or 25%) spring up again spontaneously. It is well established that more than 70% of the energy consumption at the national level comes from wood. The demand has been, for many years, greater than the supply. Indeed, the quantity of charcoal consumed in 1990 has more than doubled compared with that of 1980. As the wood Is being used up, it is a real energy crisis which is looming for Haiti and which could have been lessened had the Haitians had the wisdom of the first inhabitants of Hawaii to seed four trees before felling one, a lesson I learned last April during a visit to the Pu'uhonua o Honaunau Historical Park on the Big Island.
As a consequence of this enduring situation, the thick forest that once blanketed the half-island green mountains Is disappearing at a rapid rate, leaving the ravaged landscape naked and vulnerable. Every year the deforestation eats up 5% of the forest, so that less than 10% of Haiti's forest remains and nearly a quarter of the country's exposed soil is undergoing rapid erosion which, on many mountains, has ripped off most of the topsoil, leaving bare rock. Furthermore, the deforestation has catastrophic effects on agriculture, because the more they deforest, the more the firewood becomes rare. To compensate, the villagers will then burn more stubble and harvest residues, thereby depriving the soil of organic elements. The productivity of the Haitian soil has been decreasing since 1980, and agriculture, it should be pointed out, mobilizes two out of three active Haitians.
The situation is horrendous in the northwestern part of Haiti. This region, the poorest of the country, has a surface area of some 2000 square kilometers and a population of about 400,000 people, the majority of whom live without potable water and electricity. 80% of the surface is degraded by deforestation. The primary sectors of production of the Northwest are traditionally agriculture and fishing. However, the erosion brought about by the deforestation has considerably reduced agricultural productivity. Also, the irrational exploitation of marine resources has caused their virtual exhaustion; indeed, the fishermen of this region have no cooling facilities on board their ships and 35% of the catch spoils along the way. Thus this region, like many others In Haiti, is caught in an ecological vicious circle, which accentuates the pauperization of its peasantry and Is one of the major sources of its ecological Impoverishment. There is an urgent need to find realistic solutions to the serious energy-related and ecological problems of regions like this one.
After the restoration of democracy, I returned to my homeland to establish a corporation, called Energies Naturelles or Energinat, S.A., for the purpose of producing alternative sources of energy whose availability will contribute to slow down the degradation of the soil by deforestation and erosion brought about by the excessive use of firewood. To carry out this mission, the corporation has had success in identifying the most efficient and environmentally benign technologies for the recovery of the natural energy appearing in the form of wind wave or sun rays or stored in biomass and the transformation of the recovered kinetic or potential energy into beneficial energy. However, one resource I had not identified until learning about the developmental work at the facilities of the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii at Keahole Point on the Big Island of Hawaii is DEEP OCEAN WATER, which is the world's most valuable new natural energy resource and with which Haiti as no other nation is blessed in close proximity to its entire coast. This is evident in the conventional map of Haiti on which Dr. Craven had superimposed the 1000 meter isobath. At this depth the deep seawater is cold and pure and rich in nutrients.
There are three geographic sites of interest: Mole St. Nicolas (in the northwest), Bale de St. Marc (in the west) and the Southern Peninsula. Thus Haiti, by virtue of its land-sea configuration and its 200-mile exclusive economic zone, is the most favored nation in the Caribbean for access to this resource.
As you know, the Common Heritage Corporation has developed and tested a number of basic technologies for employing deep ocean water for economic and environmentally sustainable air conditioning and industrial cooling, fresh water production, cool and cold water aquaculture and production of a wide assortment of tropical and temperate agricultural crops. Another benefit that has been derived from exploiting the temperature differences between the warm surface ocean water and the cold deep ocean water is the generation of electrical power and the production of potable water as a by-product. Although ocean thermal energy conversion into electricity (OTEC) Is still a stage away from being economical in most locations, ft is technically feasible.
The Deep Ocean Water (DOW) system developed at the facilities of the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii has three major subsystems:
The Common Heritage Corporation and the Haitian corporation Energies Naturelles (Energinat, S.A.) are negotiating a Joint Venture Agreement leading to the establishment of a demonstration self-sufficiency facility for Haiti. The Joint Venture will focus initially on the more affordable cold and nutrient utilization subsystems for a sustainable self-sufficiency system that can be Immediately implemented. We propose to establish on a site on an appropriate coastline of Haiti a 10 million dollar basic demonstration system consisting of:
We believe that the most appropriate geographic site, based on demographic needs and access to deep ocean water, Is the Mole St. Nicolas area which lies in close proximity to the 1000 meter isobath and whose bay delimited by two capes (Cap du Mole and Cap St. Nicolas) is a promising location for a deep ocean water development project.
One major economic benefit that can be derived from the use of the cold deep ocean water resource in our demonstration project in Haiti is air conditioning and industrial cooling. In a tropical climate, air conditioning for buildings and hotels represents the major energy demand. In Mole St. Nicolas, buildings and hotels on the coastline adjacent to our deep ocean pipes can be air conditioned with cold deep seawater by a system that has proven to be both simple and economical.
Also, simple room air conditioning units can be developed and used in the coastal desert community of Mole St. Nicolas, similar to the unit ingenuously built at Keahole Point and comprised of a cold seawater supply, an automobile radiator and an inexpensive household fan. Moreover, a cooling facility (chill house) cooled with deep ocean water can be easily developed and used to store and preserve the fisherman's catch until it can be transferred to motorized lighters for transport to the city.
Another quality of life benefit that can be made available to people in the Mole St. Nicolas area is fresh water from condensation and desalinization. Everywhere deep ocean water flows through pipes above the ground or near the surface, condensation Is generated. it has been estimated that a flow of deep water of about 20,000 gallons/min could generate 1,000 gallons/min of fresh water through simple condensation. The condensate can be captured and utilized to meet the needs of the coastal community.
In the Bay of Mole St. Nicolas, there is a flat plain on the water's edge followed by a flat plateau, both of which will be adequate for cold water agriculture. The grounds of these two zones are barren and are crying for the black plastic irrigation pipes of cold water agriculture, so that the heavy condensation which is induced on the surface of the pipes will create microclimates that can make these grounds burgeon with more than 100 varieties of tropical and temperate climate fruits, vegetables and herbs. Because a temperature gradient between root and fruit is produced which pumps nutrients (principally nitrates and phosphates) into the plants at a rate which is probably three times greater than that produced by nature in the spring or fall in temperate climate areas, the temperate climate fruits grown in the cold water agriculture bed at Keahole Point showed rapid growth, high yield and high sugar and aromatic content. Some of these Include plump and sweet strawberries, gorgeous pears, luscious peaches and the very best wine grapes (which is not surprising because, for Galileo, wine seemed to be a natural energy resource since he defined it as "la lumiere du soleil captive dans l'eau" , "sunlight held captive in water"). Also, the CHC has had success in growing garlic plants in the garden at Keahole Point; the growth of this temperate climate produce in a tropical desert has great economic implications for Haiti. Thus, happy farmers will be able to grow all year round the highest quality crops of every description economically and rapidly in the hostile desert climate of Mole St. Nicolas.
After the deep ocean water has been employed in one or more cold utilization applications, it can be utilized again for the nutrients, the residual cold (130C) and the purity In cool and cold water aquaculture farms which are able to produce environments acceptable to many species of marine life, including macro- and microalgae, sea vegetables, fin fish and shell fish. Therefore, In the Mole St. Nicolas area several species of fish will be produced by aquaculture in ponds or tanks of pure, nutrient-rich cool or cold deep ocean water to supplement the fisherman's catch with salmon, flounder and even fleshy Maine lobster.
In summary then, major economic and other quality of life benefits can be made available to the people located in the coastal desert of Haiti's Mole St. Nicolas where we propose to install a demonstration starter system employing cold deep ocean water for air conditioning and industrial cooling, fresh water production, cool and cold water aquaculture, production of a wide assortment of high quality agricultural crops, and eventually generation of electrical power.
The Deep Ocean Water technologies, which have been developed and tested at the facilities of the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii at Keahole Point and which have done miracles on the Big Island of Hawaii, are available for application and can be readily transferred to Haiti to work the same miracles. Indeed, Haiti and Hawaii have the same topography characterized by coastal deserts and mountains and are located at the same latitude north of the Equator.
With the establishment of such a demonstration self-sufficiency facility, the desert coastal zone of Mole St. Nicolas, which is presently capable of supporting only a small isolated and poor community, will attract more people and will eventually develop into a vibrant self-sufficient community which is economically, culturally and environmentally sustainable. This coastal desert zone win be looked upon as a great asset for the region's sustainable development and may serve as a model for other coastal desert areas of the country, so that in the next 20 years or so several self-sufficiency facilities may be established leading to the sustainable development of many communities that will dot the coastline of Haiti as many points of light for, by this time, they will be supplied with electricity produced by OTEC plants. This way, In the 21st century, these coastal communities will be able to benefit fully from the Blue-Green Renaissance and receive their equitable share of the valuable natural resources of the sea In accordance with the concept of the Common Heritage of Mankind embodied in the 1994 United Nations Treaty on the Law of the Sea and in the charter of the Common Heritage Corporation.
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