PLD: Government has done nothing to avoid water shortages

The Dominican Liberation Party (PLD) accused the government of the critical situation experienced by the population due to water shortages, due to the lack of investment in works to preserve water resources and the irrational use of the water reservoirs of the dams, to cover up errors in the administration of the electricity generating plants.

The declarations were offered by Olgo Fernández, Secretary of Public Works; and Alfonso Ureña, Secretary of Environment of the Purple Party, who said that the government has also ignored these important spaces for consultation and decision-making and has dedicated itself to following guidelines that do not make logical sense, nor obey technical or scientific criteria.

“The watersheds are not being attended to; we already know what is happening with the Ministry of Environment; and in the face of an evident water problem there is no communication campaign to create awareness on the efficient and rational use of water consumption,” the leaders specified in an interview on the PLD online Youtube channel.
The moderation of the interview of both leaders fell to Francis Jorge, director of the School of Municipal Governance, in which they assured that the presidential candidate, Abel Martinez, has emphasized the solutions that the government should consider to solve the problem of water shortages in the country.

“Abel Martinez, our next and sure president, has been punctual, he has hit the bull’s eye, since he has emphasized the solutions in which the Dominican State must get involved to solve the problem of lack of water; pointing out a series of actions to mitigate the effects of the drought.”

They indicated that among the actions pointed out by Abel Martinez, which the government should follow, are the cleaning of sediment in all the reservoirs at the national level; investing the seven billion spent in publicity in a good campaign of rational use of water to try to change the people’s perception and habits of this natural resource; placing systems of measurement of water consumption by sectors to identify losses; as well as the drilling of wells and the construction of reservoirs in the communities that require it.

“With those 7,800 million pesos that the government has spent on publicity it would have solved the vital problem of the lack of water: building the 70 large reservoirs that the PLD government left them designed and started”, they emphasized.

Olgo Fernández, former director of the National Institute of Hydraulic Resources (INDRHI), pointed out that the PLD government left a water plan designed by hydrographic basins, which includes several works budgeted for the next 20 years; taking into consideration that drought in the Dominican Republic is cyclical.

In this sense, Fernandez indicated that in spite of the fact that every year, from December to April, there are strong droughts, the government has not planned nor made the investments it has to make to face this situation and to be able to have an answer for society, agriculture, livestock, and the whole national productive spectrum.

“This government has done nothing to face the drought. The first thing is that it has not built any important work; in spite of the fact that we left a very advanced important work in Monte Grande, with 58% of execution; in other words, it is the lack of vision that this government has to recognize the positive things of the past government and that they have had to continue it, but they have not been able to finish it,” he added.

He said that the four great basins in the country are the ones in which the Dominican State should be committed to solving the fundamental problems and not dedicate itself to making promises that it cannot fulfill.

Santiago. The reservoir of the Tavera-Bao dams has reached its lowest level so far this year and if it remains like this, the supply crisis which has been affecting this city in the last few days and which has forced the Corporación de Acueducto y Alcantarillado de Santiago (Coraasan) to sectorize the supply as a way to rationalize the consumption of the liquid, could worsen. HOY/Nelson Garcia.

Olgo Fernández considered that one of the fundamental reasons why this government has fallen into this situation of extreme drought is because the waters collected in the nine large dams and the 18 medium and small dams of the country, during the cyclonic season, about 1,500 million cubic meters of water, were used by the government to compensate the energy deficit that the country had, due to the inadequate administration of Punta Catalina.

On the other hand, Alfonso Ureña recalled that during the PLD governments, the Water Board was created, which the current government later called the Water Pact; then the Climate Change Board was formed, which was an initiative of the Secretary General of the PLD, within the framework of the Economic and Social Council, where the political, social and environmental sectors could talk and make decisions on the public policies that should be established both in the short, medium and long term.

He warned that it is necessary to acquire early warning systems to monitor the climate and determine the magnitude of the rains or other phenomena and take the appropriate measures in each situation.

He also said that it is urgent to clean the reservoirs to increase their water accumulation capacity, as in the case of the Tavera dam which currently has 35% less than its capacity because it is full of sediments.

Finally, the leaders of the party indicated that Public Works, INAPA, the CAASD, and the municipalities should have a continuous plan for the cleaning of public roads to manage the runoffs that can fall at any moment and avoid floods or the canalization of the waters.