Why Is a Glass of Water Enough to Flood the City of Les Cayes and Haiti’s Coastal Towns?

In the city of Les Cayes, it is actually the population (or part of it) that is not in the right place. According to sociologist and urban planning expert Michèle Oriol, former Executive Secretary of the Interministerial Committee on Land Use Planning (CIAT), there are two main reasons why Les Cayes floods with every drop of rain. The first, she says, is historical. “When we look at colonial maps, we can clearly see that the city was built in a marshy area with many small ponds, between two rivers—both quite large, with si