On May 13, the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince, and parts of the Central Plateau region, were plunged into darkness when a citizens group, the Engaged Citizens Movement (ECM), sabotaged the Péligre hydroelectric plant, located on the Artibonite River. The state-run Électricité d’Haïti (EDH) company reported that members of the group, angry over security forces’ failure to stop gang takeovers of the towns of Mirebalais and the nearby Saut-d’Eau in the Central Plateau region, carried out an “invasion” of the plant, and shut it down in a “heinous act of sabotage,” stopping the turbines and reducing electricity production “to zero.” The capital and Central Plateau region still remain without power in the midst of a dire humanitarian and security crisis, in which half the population is starving, relying on UN agencies and NGOs to provide food and medical assistance. Internet service is also out.
Based in Mirebalais, the ECM was protesting the Viv Ansanm gang coalition’s March 31 takeover of that large town, during which they destroyed homes and infrastructure, and terrorized the population, while security forces failed to stop the rampage. On April 23, the University Hospital of Mirebalais, one of country’s largest medical centers, was forced to close its doors because of gang activity. ECM president Robenson Mazarin said his group attacked the Péligre Dam to protest the lack of security, and warned that the plant will remain closed as long as authorities refuse to act. Haiti’s General Electricity Directorate is reporting that restoring electricity may take time, particularly for the capital, to ensure the safety of EDH’s employees and technicians. Intent on destroying critical infrastructure, gangs frequently attack and destroy EDH offices and equipment, and threaten personnel.
The Péligre Dam, built in 1956 by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, was part of a broader development program for the fertile Artibonite River Valley, proposed by Henry Wallace’s Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture founded in 1942. This ambitious program to build the hydropower dam, create Lake Péligre, and provide irrigation, water and resource control, became known as the “Valley of Hope” or the “little TVA”—a smaller version of the Tennessee Valley Authority built by Franklin Roosevelt’s government.
Péligre is the largest hydroelectric plant in Haiti, but according to Le Nouvelliste “it has never been protected according to its strategic value.” It’s the only distribution point capable of launching circuits that provide power to 4 million people, and “must be operational for other electricity production centers to connect to the grid and power the circuits.” Without Péligre, electricity cannot be distributed to Port-au-Prince, nor can the Artibonite Valley be irrigated.
