MEMORIES AND PROPOSAL FOR THE PEOPLE OF PETIT-GOÂVE

Petit-Goâve covers an area of 388 km2. It is a commune in the western department, located approximately 68 km southwest of Port-au-Prince. Its current population is estimated at 200,201 inhabitants, with over 71% living in the city. Nestled between the coast and the mountains, from which it is separated by a strip of plain, the city is one of the oldest in the country. It was called Goâve by the Amerindians, meaning bay. Then, the Spanish named it Aguava at the end of the 16th century. After the Treaty of Ryswick (1697), the French divided the city into two: Grand-Goâve and Petit-Goâve. Situated in the path of cyclones and storms, the commune and particularly its mountains are often affected by extreme weather phenomena. On the night of October 28-29, 2025, during Hurricane Melissa's passage, the overflowing of La Digue caused floods in the areas of “Dèyè et Devan Gabion,” Borne Soldat, Chemin Neuf, and Nan Ananas, making traffic on National Road Number 2 (RN2) impassable from the bridge to the sub-police station of the Haitian National Police. The provisional toll reported by Petit-Goâve Civil Protection on November 1, 2025, is very heavy: 25 dead, including 10 children, 7 missing persons, 12 injured, 132 houses destroyed and 789 houses flooded, 815 affected families, 3 schools and 5 churches damaged, etc. Additionally, several businesses in these areas were affected, and several vehicles were buried in water and mud. In the community of Fon Fabre, to the east and not far from the La Digue bridge, the Provence River, which had been diverted from its natural course, devastated crops on both sides of the RN2. In the hills, gardens and livestock were particularly severely affected, while land (landslides, rockfalls) and some houses also bore the brunt. During a meeting with farmers on November 3, they indicated that they would only have enough food for two weeks, and after that, there would be famine. This speaks volumes about the fragility of their production to natural hazards, their own vulnerability, and the loss of their resilience.

1. Why such a tragedy?
   People of the Soulouquois city, I am not a politician. I have neither the eloquence, nor the pen, nor the charisma to charm you with my speech. But, I have a strong civic conscience, a community commitment, technical capacity, and practical experience that are well-established. It is with reference to this that I address you, with complete frankness and sincerity. I have heard the cries of pain from the victim families, resounding loudly like thunder in a very dark sky, torn by untimely lightning. I have listened to and read the frustrations of some and the recriminations of others, as well as the prescriptions of certain people, as if Melissa was solely responsible for the loss of human lives and the major material damage recorded. I have also heard certain expectations, poorly concealing, however, the impatience of vultures and scavengers who have already begun to maneuver on the ground.

I myself went to the scene. I saw, observed, discussed with residents, and tried to decipher with hindsight, knowing that previously (on July 14, 2025) Sosyete Lakou Dessalines had written to four ministries to draw their attention to the risks and invite them to act, subsequently making the content of the letter public. On August 25 and September 2, 2025, the said institution conducted two exploratory visits with about ten people, consisting respectively of ascending the bed of the La Digue river, from the bridge to the two gorges, at the foot of Bourdeau, and from the hills to descend back towards the bed of the La Digue river to the bridge, with the aim of fully understanding its dynamics based on the characteristics of the territory, and thoroughly analyzing both human factors and challenges, as well as the risks and threats it poses to the city. Sosyete Lakou Dessalines then produced a document outlining 3 major actions to be taken:
1) the restoration of the ecosystem of La Digue's micro-watersheds and the improvement of the living environment for their inhabitants;
2) the dredging of the riverbed and gabion construction associated with a vegetative belt over a reasonable perimeter to offer maximum protection and eliminate identified weaknesses; and
3) the construction of the bridge itself.

2. Strong concepts for strong challenges
   I empathize with the pain of the victim families, knowing that nothing can compensate for the loss of human lives, like, for example, this inconsolable mother who lost 3 children. But, despite this moment of shock, we cannot avoid asking who or what system killed the emperor?

If climate change can be implicated and if Melissa is the spark that ignited the powder keg, it must also be recognized that the anthropogenic factor is itself the barrel of gunpowder. This is what can be called: “Seeking life, destroying life.” It is the melting pot of the rural environment in the city, making Petit-Goâve one of the most urbanized communes in the country (71% of its population). These are people seeking progress or evolution. Fleeing all kinds of deprivations in their environment, they come to crowd into a shantytown, while the reason of state and its authority are completely absent. So far, no official has thrown in the towel or been dismissed for negligence1. It sends shivers down one's spine to hear some say that if they are given wood and sheet metal, they will rebuild their shelter in the same place. But it is also reassuring when a minority prefers to settle elsewhere or return to their areas of origin. This was revealed by a survey conducted on November 3 and 4, 2025, by Sosyete Lakou Dessalines on a sample of 164 affected families, representing 20% of the 815 families. This survey also showed that the three urgent needs are food (31%), energy (27%), and clothing (22%). Knowing the impact of trauma on mental health and, therefore, on behavior, it is also appropriate to consider psychological support. Furthermore, knowing that with every difficulty there are always opportunities, it is important to change perspective to take advantage of them. Melissa should be the pretext and the occasion to raise the bar and think both of real change for the commune in general and a qualitative leap for the city in particular. This is one of the causes that the people of Petit-Goâve, from here and elsewhere, should strive to collectively and organizedly champion, promote, and defend, while pooling their strengths to also be frontline agents in this reconstruction. 1 Let us recall that Melissa was announced and preceded by 4 days of rain in the mountains, whose soil was already saturated before the torrential rains of the hurricane. Furthermore, knowing the monster that La Digue can be when it is in high flood (given that a similar, and perhaps worse, tragedy was already experienced in 1994) and the existing weak links in the protective banks, a voluntary or forced evacuation should have taken place. But, this was not the case.

3. Proposed actions to take
   Here are some avenues, which we can enrich and finalize together, to then make them our battle cry for the next 25 years. Knowing that it is impossible for one or two governments to achieve everything, let us then leave to this outgoing government the emergency actions, with a view to satisfying urgent needs and preserving the dignity of both the deceased and the 815 affected families:
   A series of emergency actions
   On the one hand, certain emergency actions to be carried out:
    Support for families to provide dignified funerals for the deceased, while observing a symbolic 60-minute work stoppage;
    Closing the breach with gabions and excavation with mechanical shovels, so that the waters resume their usual course and to protect the flooded downstream areas (the two breaches surrounding Hotel Marco, which lead to National Road #2 and Nan Ananas);
    Temporary relocation of victim families (short-term and according to precise and fair modalities, using host families and other appropriate locations: force majeure and reason of state oblige);
    Provision of drinking water (bucket with water filter, temporary fountains), handwashing stations, and installation of mobile toilets (to minimize the risks of cholera spread and others);
    Provision of kits (food, cooking, sanitary, hygiene, school, energy);
    Clothing (purchase of fabrics and mobilization of contracted artisans to make clothes, thus circulating money locally), shoes, and blankets;
    Labor-intensive work (in terms of cleaning/clearing to recover certain goods buried in the rubble), to recapitalize relocated families and enable them to carry out lucrative activities to support themselves;
    Support for the population in repairing important missing items;
    Other basic specific elements (psychological support, construction materials for families with another safe place to go, media awareness campaign, etc.)

Knowing the usual deviations associated with emergency operations, the State must indeed organize itself to effectively exercise its leadership, positioning itself as a regulator, protector, and facilitator. It is its responsibility to guide operators from various backgrounds present, according to the needs identified by zone, while maintaining close follow-up contact with them and providing them with the necessary support so that they play their role effectively and genuinely contribute to quickly mitigating Melissa's impact on the population. A package of sustainable actions for rebirth. On the other hand, on a structural level, my proposal is divided into three phases: short, medium, and long term. It clings to the very powerful message conveyed by Melissa: nature invites Haiti to take a major spiritual turn for qualitative material renewal. The first thing is to move beyond a band-aid approach, to meet the call of history by taking the bull by the horns. This turn then involves psychic (mental and behavioral), sociological (cultural, identity, and social), economic (investment in production, putting people to work), ecological (rehabilitation and protection of ecosystems and biodiversity), and climatic (adaptation and mitigation) requirements. In other words, the damage from Melissa in Petit-Goâve must be an opportunity to seize for building a modern model city, with a vision of rebirth. How to achieve this? As the holder of the monopoly of legitimate violence, the State must not only effectively and justly exercise its sovereign power but also be a wise territorial planner, an investor, and an investment catalyst acting as an incentivizer, supporter, protector, and redistributor of created wealth to filter social and territorial injustice. The State therefore needs to first promote endogenous development (based on local assets and potentials), with an iron fist in a velvet glove, to then make democracy a way of life in cleanliness, dignity, and posterity for all. Here are 12 consequential and structural actions to be taken:

1. Zoning and an urban development plan to anticipate and accompany the city's expansion, while establishing a house codification/numbering system, as well as a risk information system;
2. The restoration and protection of the ecosystems of La Digue's watersheds (12th and 11th sections) through actions capable of modifying the territory's morphology and vegetation to increase water infiltration rates and reduce runoff rates; the improvement of the quality of life for their inhabitants and their access to socioeconomic infrastructures and local services, while supporting the major territorial project called “Les Jardins Lakou Dessalines,” a memorial pilgrimage and ecotourism site, with a significant impact on entrepreneurship as a springboard and engine for wealth, job, and income creation at local, communal, regional, and even national levels;
3. The dredging of the riverbed and gabion construction along the banks, supported by a protective vegetative belt of sufficient width and depth to offer maximum resistance, on both sides of the river;
4. The construction of the bridge with sufficient elevation and length;
5. The construction of 3 to 4-story social housing to accommodate victim families, including public squares and quality public services, particularly in terms of schools, hospitals, peace courts, water, electricity, transport, waste management, etc., while the affected area will be transformed into a large cooperative farm for agricultural and agro-food production with the participation of victims, while also making it a place for walks and memories;
6. The modern rehabilitation of the port, extending its footprint nearby, with the aim of generating wealth to finance urban and rural renovation infrastructures, while transforming the peripheral area into a true city center (Downtown), with its former economic and financial vocation;
7. The construction of a sports and cultural center, encompassing the Anglade park site and the former Faustin Soulouque High School (modern rehabilitation of the field, construction of a gymnasium and a parking lot);
8. The rehabilitation of Notre-Dame Hospital in Petit-Goâve to make it a reference hospital with large reception capacity and offering quality services for both the commune and the Grand Sud region;
9. The relocation of the market to expand the public square and build a true City Hall, while reclaiming the location of the Emperor's Hotel to install a municipal library, a technological third place, a museum, a performance and cinema hall, an observatory. It is also about finding an appropriate place to relocate the public market;
10. The rehabilitation of streets and drainage works, plus the greening of the city's streets, as well as rural roads, notably: Tapion – Vallue; Béatrice-Palmes with an outlet to Côte-de-Fer; Vialet / Delate / Fort Gary; Trouchouchou / Cocoyer Beach, which are agricultural production areas and major tourist attractions.
11. The rehabilitation and revitalization of the coastline, while highlighting the most beautiful beaches;
12. The structuring of communal taxation for maximum collection to finance the commune's renovation plan.

In conclusion
The dawn of a new battle for change is on the horizon. Sons and daughters of Petit-Goâve, from here and elsewhere, from urban and rural areas, let us awaken and stand up with conscience and conviction for this long journey. But let us be on our guard so that the vultures and scavengers do not continue to be, in these circumstances, the sharp weapon that bleeds Haiti and the black leech that weakens it, nor continue to treat us as “restavèk” who deserve only crumbs. It was Mark Twain who said: “When the rich steal from the poor, it's called business. When the poor defend themselves, it's called violence.” So, let us intelligently seek and boldly find our heroes to accompany us in exercising our right to self-defense. What remains for us to do is to learn lessons, to establish and launch the great Konbit of the Soulouquois city; that is, to organize ourselves, massively educate, and act together to build and harvest, after the storm, a better quality of life for all. It is possible! Abner Septembre
Sosyete Lakou Dessalines Vallue