A year after the earthquake that devastated Haiti, singer and actor Luck Mervil revealed yesterday in Montreal, the plans of the first village to be created under the project Vilaj Vilaj. The initiative was announced on August 12, 2010, aims to develop model villages adopting the techniques and latest technologies of construction, environmental protection and improvement of living conditions.

The new village will be built in Pailllant on a hill rising to 900 m of altitude. The 800 houses will accommodate initially some 5,000 people, but the infrastructure will allow at long-term to accommodate 25,000 inhabitants. Many schools and health centers will be installed and free zones will be created to allow companies to settle locally.

The containers, first planned to build single-family homes, were finally abandoned: too much demand, too expensive after the quake, according Mervil. The houses will be built, however, from a cement antiseismic.

"We have consulted the people there, the government authorities. We were under tents with people, they presented the project and asked what they thought," said Luck Mervil. "We really want to cooperate. What we seek to do, is unite the efforts towards the common good." In this regard, he thanked the mayor of the capital Port-au-Prince for having facilitated the consultations with citizens, before announcing "We can not, do it alone, we do not wish only donors, we want also partners. "

"The idea is to make a real village, taking into account employment. We do not build a series of homes, we want to include all elements of sustainable development. We need to build, so that there is a local dynamic," says architect Ron Rayside, from the Montreal firm of architects and planners Rayside Labossière. The first village, which could be completed within one year and cost $28 million, but Vilaj Vilaj still research funding, with large companies but also individuals in Quebec and in Haiti.

HL/ HaitiLibre