This is why the Ouanaminthe canal is changing its president and treasurer

The controversial pastor in charge of the initiative was pushed out along with his treasurer. They are criticized for having made new irregular expenditures of several million gourdes

The Ouanaminthe canal has reformed its committee, a key step for the relaunch of work in the Maribahoux plain in Ouanaminthe, according to interviews carried out by AyiboPost with people involved in the community initiative.

The new structure of the committee took shape during a general meeting organized on Tuesday March 25.

Two high-profile members of the committee of the “Kanal la P ap Kanpe” movement, President Moïse Joseph and treasurer Gaston Etienne, were excluded during this assembly, which was attended by around thirty personalities involved in the KPK movement.

A good part of the dozen members of the committee were present at the meeting, which took place in the absence of Joseph and Etienne.

The latter had already ignored the last meeting, held on Monday October 7 of the previous year — the first organized after six months of inactivity. This meeting resulted in the creation of a mediation commission to resolve the disputes that were gnawing at the structure.

According to Guillaume Josaphat, an influential member of the committee and one of the two spokespersons, “the mediation commission did not succeed in bringing the recalcitrant members back to the discussion table because of their intransigence”.

Mackendy Josaphat and Antoine Claude, two important figures who participated in the launch of the KPK project, were appointed respectively as new president and treasurer of the committee.

Two commissions, made up of five and seven people, were created during this last general assembly. They are responsible respectively for ensuring the logistics of future canal work and harmonizing the relationships and actions of the committee members with the farmers of the Maribahoux plain.

The new structure of the committee took shape during an extraordinary general meeting organized on Tuesday March 25, 2025

For Guillaume Josaphat, this is an “important step in strengthening agricultural recovery. We must continue, because we have a mission to the country.”

The construction of the Ouanaminthe canal, on the Massacre River, begun under the presidency of the late Jovenel Moïse. Located on the edge of the Haitian-Dominican border, the project aims to transport water to irrigate 3,000 hectares of land in the Maribahoux plain.

The construction stopped after the death of Moïse. But it was resumed by the population, and sparked one of the most significant outpourings of solidarity from Haitians, both inside the country and within the diaspora, since the 2010 earthquake.

However, internal dissensions in the management committee hindered the completion of the canal, according to an AyiboPost investigation dated in October last year.

Several engineers involved told AyiboPost that the canal could disappear if certain essential infrastructure was not built.

For example, the canal requires sedimentation basins for the evacuation of alluvium, a retention canal to store and measure the flow of water, a flushing basin, as well as secondary and tertiary canals to ensure equitable irrigation of plantations in the plain.

Gabionage upstream and downstream of the canal remains one of the most critical infrastructures to be finalized. Its negligence could lead to the appearance of cracks and the dislocation of the masonry during heavy floods during the rainy season.

After the AyiboPost article, work on the construction of a retention or distribution basin began in December 2024.

In October last year, the members of the committee obtained funding of 80,000 US dollars, a little over ten million gourdes, from the World Food Program (WFP).

According to the current president of the canal committee, Mackendy Josaphat, this money was deposited into the KPK account, then managed by Moïse Joseph and Gaston Etienne.

After the irregular expenditure scandal revealed by AyiboPost last year, “the members of the committee put in place a memorandum of understanding setting out the terms of disbursement of the funds collected for the construction of the retention basin,” Josaphat explains to AyiboPost.

Article 5 of this protocol made the joint signature of the president or treasurer with that of secretary Rosine Charles obligatory.

But, according to Josaphat, disbursements were made by Pastor Moïse Joseph and Gaston Etienne without Charles’ signature, in violation of protocol. According to him, “this is one of the reasons which led us to reshuffle the committee on March 25”.

Pastor Moïse Joseph was contacted by AyiboPost on April 4. He did not respond to the facts raised by members of the former committee. He declared that he had “no time to devote to machinations concocted from scratch by little vagabonds”.

The retention basin works, funded by WFP, were supervised and implemented by a subcontracting firm called “SIKSE” and executed by three engineers from KPK, according to a confidential report covering the first phase of the works from December 10, 2024 to February 11, 2025, obtained exclusively by AyiboPost.

This report indicates that the work included, among other things, the widening of the river and the construction of two retaining walls on the right and left banks of the canal.

Ten million gourdes were disbursed by the concerned members of the committee for the completion of this work.

Pastor Moïse Joseph, now former president of the committee and one of the direct beneficiaries of the expenses incurred for the first works of the canal via “the sale of his services” through his construction company, also provided materials for the distribution canal to the tune of 1,695,000 gourdes.

An AyiboPost investigation in 2024 — which had already identified Moïse Joseph as one of the main suppliers — raised questions about a possible conflict of interest.

Still according to this document obtained by AyiboPost, a lack of resources hampered the second phase of works on the distribution channel, involving the finalization of certain concrete structures, such as a dam and a transverse barrier.

Materials are in stock, but there is a lack of financial means to pay the workers. The document mentions a debt of 291,000 gourdes to the site workers.

Financing problems are also recurring in the context of the construction of the Ouanaminthe canal. Pastor Moïse Joseph complained to AyiboPost in 2024 about the insufficient cash flow of the initiative to ensure the completion of the work.

To build the Ouanaminthe canal, Haitian and foreign contributors raised nearly one million US dollars and 43 million gourdes.

Despite the upheavals within the Ouanaminthe canal management committee, Mackendy Josaphat, the new president, remains optimistic: “We must work to meet citizens’ expectations regarding the Ouanaminthe canal,” he emphasizes.

By : Junior Legrand

Cover | Aerial view of the Ouanaminthe canal. Photo : AyiboPost

► AyiboPost is dedicated to providing accurate information. If you notice any mistake or error, please inform us at the following address : hey@ayibopost.com

Keep in touch with AyiboPost via:

► Our Channel Telegram : Click here

► Our Channel WhatsApp : Click here

► Our Community WhatsApp : Click here