Bank accounts of the Ouanaminthe Canal confiscated in Haiti

Set up in March 2025 during an extraordinary general meeting, this « reorganized » committee intended to continue the « agricultural revival » in the Maribahoux plain and reform solidarity around the project, already severely tested by internal dissensions.

But more than six months later, the work to be carried out on the Ouanaminthe canal has reached an impasse due to a lack of resources, materials and effective coordination between the old and new committees.

« Pastor Moïse Joseph, the president of the former Ouanaminthe canal committee, refused to give us the key to the excavator – one of the most important pieces of equipment for the work – despite all the amicable requests we made to him to this effect, » Josaphat emphasizes.

Four bank accounts for the canal – including two at the Banque Nationale de Crédit (BNC) and two at Sogebank – have still not been recovered by the current committee from the former management structure of the structure, led by Gaston Étienne and Moïse Joseph.

Read also: This is why the Ouanaminthe Canal is changing its president and treasurer

A formerly influential figure within the former canal fund management committee, Pastor Moïse Joseph remains a controversial figure in the initiative.

He made a large part of the expenses, with more than a hundred transactions, including materials purchased on behalf of the canal works in his own construction company, thus raising concerns of conflict of interest.

Moïse and treasurer Gaston Étienne were removed from the new committee after accusations of embezzlement of $80,000 in funding from the World Food Programme (WFP) in October 2024.

Meanwhile, the current Ouanaminthe Canal Committee – one of Haiti’s largest grassroots solidarity movements of the last decade – is desperately short of funds to complete the work.

An AyiboPost investigation in October 2024 highlighted that work was necessary at the structure, such as the construction of sedimentation basins for the evacuation of alluvium, retention channels to store and measure the flow of the current, as well as gabionnage upstream and downstream of the canal.

The work to be carried out on the Ouanaminthe canal has reached an impasse due to a lack of resources, materials and effective coordination between the old and new committees.

Following this article, the WFP released US$80,000 for the construction of retention basins at the canal. This money was deposited into the KPK account, then managed by Moïse Joseph and Gaston Étienne.

For this work, Pastor Moïse Joseph also provided materials, through his construction company, to the tune of 1,695,000 gourdes.

A confidential report obtained by AyiboPost, covering the first phase of work carried out from December 10, 2024 to February 11, 2025, highlighted a lack of resources hampering the completion of the project.

There is a lack of financial means to pay 291,000 gourdes owed to the workers. 

For the new committee, the financial picture remains bleak.

« For the moment, we don’t have the financial resources to resume work. Donations from the diaspora have not been arriving for some time, » Mackendy Josaphat told AyiboPost.

The only work currently underway on the canal is a spillway designed to divert the flow of the river current during flood episodes.

The hope of restarting work on the structure rests on a promise of 300 million gourdes from the Haitian government for its completion. « This sum was included in a supplementary budget adopted under the government of Garry Conille in 2024. But this money has never been released, » Josaphat explains.

In May 2025, the then Minister of Agriculture, Vernet Joseph, met with officials from the current committee to reactivate this funding.

Read more: KPK: Water flows, but tensions persist within the committee

« But so far, we haven’t received a single cent of this funding, despite assurances from government officials that the money has already been transferred from the Treasury to the Ministry of Agriculture’s account, » explains Josaphat, who also points out that the government is now making the release of these funds conditional on a prior assessment of past and future work on the canal. « This is the phase we are currently in, » he adds.

On Monday, September 15, a delegation from the Northeast Departmental Directorate of Agriculture and technicians from the Ouanaminthe canal carried out an inventory of the work.

A new meeting between the two parties was scheduled for September 30 to define priority areas for the delivery of this funding. The meeting was ultimately postponed due to a setback from one of the state officials, according to Josaphat.

But for the current chairman of the committee, time is running out.

After October 1st – the start date of the new fiscal year – this money will be redirected to the public treasury.

« We do not want this funding from the Haitian state to become a decoy for us, » worries Josaphat.

Cover : A photo of the Ouanaminthe canal. Photo : unknown