City Narrative
Esperyance
(City of Hope)
Esperyance, meaning hope in Creole, is a thriving city on the Central Plateau of Haiti. Located north of the Artibonite River and in between two mountain ranges, the city of 180,000 has used sound engineering practices to integrate its residential, commercial, and industrial needs. Esperyance offers excellent education and healthcare, a vigorous business community, and modern infrastructure. The high quality of life is also enhanced by diverse recreational activities encouraging citizens to play as hard as they work.
An equitable tax rate supports a variety of public services. Specialized schools and universities graduate students qualified in many fields. Law enforcement and fire protection keep citizens safe, aided by a central computer monitoring station. Healthcare facilities provide preventative and curative care.
Much of the income of the city derives from hundreds of products developed in agro-forestry from reforestation of nearby mountains. Four plants of importance include bamboo, the moringa tree used to purify water, and the jatropha and leucaena trees, processed as bio-fuels. Algae farms also produce bio-fuel. Industry reclaims materials from its plasma gasification process, including glass used in the manufacture of residential water cisterns. Medicinal plants and herbs have given rise to the pharmaceutical industry. Esperyance supports an agri-business sector, earning it the name, "The Breadbasket of Haiti."
Esperyance uses non-polluting, alternative fuels. It produces energy from wind, solar, fuel cells, and the gasification process. Not dependent on fossil fuel for transportation, the city refines oil from its wells for use as industrial lubricants.
Formerly, only one third of Haitians had access to potable water. Now, depending on the need, Esperyance purifies river and rain water collected in cisterns and water from aquifers for use in its municipal water supply. Moreover, residences and some commercial establishments operate with closed water systems, independent of any drain on the city water supply. Fuel cells also produce water, including microbial fuel cells that process human waste.
A diverse transportation system in Esperyance moves people and goods. Commuters ride an efficient subway within the city and a rapid maglev connecting to other parts of the island. Hydrogen hover cars and buses travel over roads designed to collect water vapor, which is condensed and added to the water supply. Industry relies on trains, trucks, and river barges to transport its products. Many residents enjoy biking to work on the dedicated bike paths. Those living in multi-use buildings have no commute time. An airport, important to the tourist industry, also services the city.
Esperyance provides a variety of recreational activities. The arts are well represented with museums, theaters, and music. Sports buffs can play or watch a variety of amateur and professional sports in parks and stadiums. The green mountains attract visitors who enjoy hiking, tubing down the many streams, bird watching, and camping. Restaurants feature Haitian cuisine.
Haitians quote an old proverb: "Beyond the mountains, more mountains." New problems will always replace solved problems. With modern technology and competent professionals, the mountains are easier to climb.
Essay
Water, Water Everywhere and All Good Drops To Drink
Modern single family dwellings of Eperyance are three bedrooms, single bath, kitchen, den, and washroom structures built of double-walled concrete, insulated with byproduct rock wool from plasma gasification. They are surrounded by yards with trees and bamboo. A civil engineer designed each residential unit, which generates its own electrical power, collects its own water, and processes it own waste products. In addition, the residence is engineered to be completely automatic. All functions of the water system are monitored by an array of sensors and regulated by a central brain that can be controlled through a laptop computer.
The houses are engineered to require little potable water from outside sources and to discharge little or no untreated wastewater to municipal or regional facilities. Dwellings are piped for the gravity distribution of three types of water: potable, gray water, and black water. Potable water is drinking quality, gray water is treated, purified, and reused within and without the dwelling, and black water is water contaminated by human wastes. Black water is treated and discharged as irrigation water on the household property.
The dwelling has one elevated master cistern tank which is used to store primary potable water from rainwater, air conditioning condensates, roof-top garden condensates, and purified gray water. The engineer specified a small line from the regional water treatment plant to provide makeup water to the cistern during times of extended drought. Also, the cistern has an overflow pipe to release excess water to irrigation. The cistern and contained water contents are treated with the seeds of the moringa oleifera tree grown onsite to remove solids, chemicals and bacteria. The clean water is then sterilized with ultraviolet light. The clean, sterile water is fed via gravity to all household uses, except the toilet and urinal.
The most complex system in the house is the gray water system. It originates as used water from the sinks, shower, dishwasher, clothes washer, and any other waste water, i.e. - household mop water, which is uncontaminated by feces and urine. All gray water is purified in algae fuel cells which produce electricity, hydrogen and clean water. The clean water is treated by ultraviolet light, collected in a tank and returned to the cistern or supplied to an underground distribution system to irrigate the landscape and trees.
Gray water provides feedwater for the toilet. The urinal is waterless. Flow from the toilet and urinal is collected as black water and is dedicated as feed water to the microbial fuel cell which treats the wastes, and generates electricity and clean water. The clean overflow from the fuel cell is ultraviolet sterilized and used as irrigation for the landscape. Water not absorbed by the landscaping percolates and recharges the aquifers.
Engineers specified the lowest practicable water usage devices currently available with the intention of converting to waterless use, such as ultrasonic cleaning of dish and clothes washing, toilet and showers when they are proven and available. Total daily water use is 28.9 gallons/day, calculated using the following equipment and rates: urinal-0.0 gallons/day (gpm), shower-1.6 gpm, toilet-1.6 gallons per flush, faucet-0.5 gpm, dishwasher-2gallons/cycle, and clothes washer-0.25 gallons/load.
The engineer anticipated two potential problems for the occupants of the dwelling. The first is long term drought which will deprive the cistern of the bulk of its primary rainwater feed. To remedy the rainwater makeup water need, a manual valve feeding potable water from the regional treatment plant was installed. The second potential problem is soil saturation which occurs during the rainy hurricane season. During saturated soil conditions treated wastewater is manually diverted to discharge to the regional sewer lines.
Esperyance can increase its population and meet the water needs of the future. Due to the efforts of its engineers, clean water will continue to recharge the area aquifers.
