One of the author's ancestors left Europe for the Island of Hispaniola in the late 17^th century. According to Victor Perera (1995), this ancestor belonged to a group of Pere(i)ras who "envisioned themselves as architects of a grand design to move mountains, tame the seas and make the world habitable for rich and poor alike". It is in this tradition that the author founded Energies Naturelles (Energinat S.A.), a Haitian corporation dedicated to the optimal management of natural energy resources for the benefit of the people of Haiti. Energies Naturelles has negotiated a joint venture agreement with CHC for the purpose of establishing a DOW system in five geographic sites identified along the coast of the country, each of which is a promising location for a deep seawater development project. These sites are: Mole St. Nicolas (Mole's Cape). St. Marc's Bay (St. Marc's Point), Gonave Island (West Point), the northern coast of the Southern Peninsula (near Jeremie), and a coastal zone east of the city of Jacmel. Since these sites are removed from each other, they will be connected to the ports of the country by sea transportation comprising a fleet of high speed ferryboats for passengers and merchandise. They will also be linked to all coastal cities, towns and villages and to the transatlantic cables by a submarine necklace of fiber optics for telephone communications, the transfer of data and the Internet. Because the DOW system does not require fresh water from municipal systems, this sustainable socio-economic development project has been named the "SANSAQUA Project", a designation suggested by Admiral Ray Cohen, Chief of United States Naval Research.

　

Each DOW site will have its symbolic fountain (similar to the one at the NELHA) where visitors can feel for themselves the marked difference between the warm tropical surface seawater and the cold arctic or antarctic deep seawater. This will serve to remind them that it is the temperature difference between these waters or between the cold DOW and the warm humid tropical air that makes it possible for each DOW system to provide: (1) fresh water for drinking, household and industrial use; (2) air conditioning and industrial cooling; (3) an abundance of temperate and tropical fruits, vegetables and herbs for food and for market; (4) Ecoturf to lay out high quality sports fields and recreational areas; (5) a nutrient-rich and pathogen-free medium for aquaculture; and (6) in the near future electricity. Because of all these quality of life benefits, which are gifts of the sea to humanity, it would be fitting to christen the fountains in the five DOW sites "The Fountains of Paradise". The latter differ from those described by Arthur C. Clarke (1979) in his famous science fiction book of the same name. Unlike Clarke's fountains, which are columns of fresh water that spring from buried pipes and leap toward the sky before falling on the ground, the seawater of the DOW site fountains is confined to pipes and does not touch the ground, but can make fresh water rain in an OTEC plant, a Hurricane Tower or a Rasmussen rainmaker.

　

Two main types of DOW systems can be designed to serve many purposes. Type 1 is a CHC basic DOW system for a self-sufficient tropical coastal desert community, which is economically, culturally and environmentally sustainable (Craven, J.P., 1995). It consists of:

　

A Type 2 system focuses on providing high market value recreational experiences, e.g., hotels, resorts and sports facilities in tropical coastal desert locations. It may or may not include an adjacent village community with a DOW agriculture-aquaculture park for resort and market needs. It may be possible to combine a Type 2 system with a Type 1 facility to provide the fresh vegetables, fruits and fish products needed for the resort, local use and market, but also resort air conditioning and high quality landscaping and sports fields for soccer, tennis, bowling or golf courses with CHC DOW Ecoturf. Such a combined Type 1 and Type 2 system is very likely to be the first facility installed in Haiti on Gonave Island, the largest offshore island of the country. Indeed, the consortium formed by Energies Naturelles and CHC has been approached by a group of Haitian business leaders who are developing plans to build a beach resort and golf club plus low-income housing and luxurious residences in the proximity of the DOW site to be established in the West Point area of Gonave Island. The combination of nearby ocean, abundant sunshine, culture and history, together with mild climate will make this location a very attractive ecotourist destination.

　

Another benefit that ecotourists can derive from the combined system is cold thalassotherapy. It has long been known that seawater is effective for atopic dermatitis. However, because surface seawater contains many bacteria and viruses, it is not recommended for daily application. Alternatively, pathogen-free DOW was tested for daily use with promising results (Nomura, 1995). Furthermore, in Finland, Russia and Canada, the so-called "polar bears" take to "Ice Swimming" in the ocean in the depths of winter because of its purported beneficial properties, such as increasing blood circulation, healing sports injuries and stimulating endorphin secretion. These polar bears will be able to enjoy the same benefits, all year-round, in pools of pumped up cold, pure DOW in a tropical coastal desert.

　

　

In 1962 the former Indian Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, went as far as stating in a speech to the Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) Association for the Advancement of Science: "Politics and religion are obsolete; the time has come for science and spirituality". For Haiti, however, the time has come for a happy marriage not only of religion and spirituality, but also of politics and science, in particular marine science and technology. During the first years of the 21^st century, which has been called the "ocean century", growing numbers of Haitians are heading for the beach to await the arrival of the North Pacific albatross which will take off from the Big Island of Hawaii, fly between the Tropic of Cancer and a latitude of 15°north and follow, like Baudelaire's albatross, the fishing boats in the Pacific Ocean before traversing Mexico and the eastern corner of Cuba to land in Haiti, transporting on its large wings the CHC DOW systems.

　

These Haitians have come to realize that life of poverty and even misery will be their fate unless they use their DOW resource - the nation's most valuable natural energy resource. They know that these DOW systems can transform many of the coastal deserts of Haiti into oases of prosperity and plenty and, to paraphrase Arthur C. Clarke, create Paradise along much of the country's coastline, so that there will only remain to build Heaven on the summit of its mountains.

　

　

Claude, G. 1930. Power from the tropical seas. Mechanical Engineering. 52(12):1039-1044.

　

Clarke, A.C. 1979. The Fountains of Paradise. Published by Warner Books, New York.

　

　

Craven, J.P. 1995. Realistic self-sufficient coastal complexes using deep ocean water as a resource. Presented at the Coastal Ocean Space Utilization (COSU) Conference '95, Yokohama, Japan, 1995.

　

　

　

　

　

Nomura, I. 1995. Medical treatment of atopic dermatitis using deep seawater. Magazine Kaigan. 34(2): 7-10 (in Japanese).

　

　

Perera, V. 1995. The French Pereiras. In The Cross and the Pear Tree, published by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., New York, chapter 6, p.135.