A few weeks ago, we shared with you about the ATC (Agricultural Training Center) students learning about erosion control by building different kinds of earthworks to help control fast-moving rainwater runoff on the exposed hillsides of Haiti’s mountains. Wilner, Director of the ATC and teacher for our training classes, continued teaching about erosion and methods to control it. The water itself is not the problem; it is when it moves too rapidly that it erodes the fragile soil. Wilner stresses that the primary objective is to “slow it, spread it and soak it.”

Sustainable erosion control techniques involve making simple structures that control four main types of erosion:
1. Sheet erosion.
2. Rill erosion, the first small erosion runways (incipient rills).
3. Rill erosion from larger, more advanced runways (established channels).
4. Gully erosion.

Erosion is the consequence of poor water infiltration into the soil where the soil can’t absorb all the water running over it. Here, even grass or other vegetation would help slow its spread and soak it. Small, one-rock “dams” help control rill erosion further down the hill when more water has made its way down the slope. Larger rock or brush structures reduce and redirect the flow of water into stabilized drainage areas. Controlling erosion is a continual process of finding ways to interrupt the water flow to “slow it, spread it and soak it.”

Your support of our development for sustainability programs helps Haitians learn how to improve their lives for the long run. Thank you.

Rad Hazelip, Assistant Executive Director