Trou Caiman is supposed to prevent excess water from 32 different rivers and streams from flowing into Azuei.

But since nearby canals are clogged, the excess water flows into Azuei rather than draining into the Atlantic Ocean.

U.N. officials say they estimated that the work would take between three and four months, and offered to help raise the $3 million if Haitian officials agreed to use manual labor.

It was critically important, they said, that banks be reinforced and 13 miles of canals be dredged, as sweet-water springs feed into the lake and the canals into the ocean. The backlog in the rising lake was obvious.

The undertaking would have unclogged the canals -- filled with decades of sediment and trash -- and created thousands of jobs if the dredging were done with manual labor. Plus, the hillsides, stripped of timber, have contributed to deforestation and erosion -- the sliding sediment filling the lake and raising the water level.

Remarais acknowledged the proposal but said solving the problem wasn't as simple as putting shovels in the hands of thousands of workers: The country lacked the money, and studies were needed to ensure that the dredging would not upset an already unstable environment.

"It's not as simple as going in with equipment and start digging, " he said.

Max Antoine II, executive director of the government-run Commission of Border Development, said: "This lake is an ecological system that definitely has to be protected because of the unique fauna that exists there, and it's a source of food for the people."

REVENUE CRUNCHED

Antoine said the nearly two months of flooding have cost the country more than $150,000 in tax revenue, not to mention disrupting the lives of people who depend on the corridor to live.

Salty floodwaters from the lake spoiled valuable crops in nearby Thomazeau, creating more hardship in a country already struggling to feed itself.

The floodwaters have hampered border-driven commerce in Malpasse and prevented immigration and customs employees from showing up for work, raising security concerns over increased drug smuggling along an already-porous border.

"It certainly could have been not as bad as it was if the canals were dredged and the trees weren't deforested, " Antoine said.

Antoine added that the government had plans to dredge the canals earlier this year, but deadly food-related riots in April put the effort on hold.

In this Cul-de-Sac Valley during the recent floods, brightly painted public transport trucks known as tap taps deposited travelers at water's edge. Shoes in hand, they padded through a knee-deep, milky water that lapped across a road hugging the hillside.

Tap taps and smaller cars were left behind, but larger trucks and passenger buses sloshed through the water and reached the Dominican border. The customs office lost two four-wheel-drive trucks.

"It's difficult for anybody to pass, " said Jean Pierre Jean-Louis, 35, a police officer. "The water has paralyzed almost every activity."

Meanwhile, merchants peddling goods and food saw many of their customers disappear while other entrepreneurs adapted.

Blakinson Metellus, 18, and Fleristene Gabriel, 22, ferried travelers across the water in a leaky wooden row boat.

Once a fisherman and a charcoal transporter, they found better income charging slightly more than a dollar per person, carrying five passengers at a time.

"After the storm, " Metellus said, "we started earning more."