Does anyone know where I can get stats on water quality int he DR. I am a missionary working in Duverge and Questa Arena and I will soon be implementing a water filtration program. I am mainly interested in finding out what bugs have been found in the water supply, Specifically, Cryptosporidium and/or Giardia but also any other info available.
- Thread starter Bill G
- Start date
Water treatment and quality
Bill, I moved your inquiry from the general links thread into its own thread in the hopes that more people will see it there and increase your chances of getting an answer.
The Planning Office of the President (ONAPLAN) reports general aggregated water and sanitation stats -- mainly availability of house connections to municipal potable water supply and/or basic sanitation links (what we tend to call "sewage" in the US) -- to the World Health Organization (WHO)/UNICEF's Jointing Monitoring Program (JMP) as part of the DR's Milennium Development Goals (MDG)commitment. But that's not the type of stats you seem to be looking for and in any case, they are not broken down into the regional or provincial subcategories it sounds like you need. You can see some of that data summarized at this link.
If such stats exist -- and are recent or kept current -- the entity most likely to have them is SESPAS, the health authority. Good luck getting useful, up-to-date info from them in a timely manner! They have often been slow to respond to my inquiries in the past, if at all.
SESPAS claims to have taken over 1,000 water samples in 2006, but only tested 18 of them for bacteria. [BTW, I think that most of the actual testing is done by labs owned by the National Hydraulic Resources Institute (INDRHI), so might want to check with them too.]
I would try to talk to the Water Dept. of Environmental Health (Salud Ambiental) people and ask them about Health Region IV, which covers the provinces of Barahona, Bahoruco, Independencia & Pedernales. The Env. Health's tel. is 809-541-3121 Extensions 2533-2206, and their general e-mail is saludambiental@sespas.gov.do
There is some old detailed data available on the wastewater situation in the DR done back in 2002 by PAHO (in Spanish), but it sounds like that's not what you're looking for. In case you're interested, let me know.
Hope this helped some.
Best regards,
Keith R
Environment Forum Moderator
The Planning Office of the President (ONAPLAN) reports general aggregated water and sanitation stats -- mainly availability of house connections to municipal potable water supply and/or basic sanitation links (what we tend to call "sewage" in the US) -- to the World Health Organization (WHO)/UNICEF's Jointing Monitoring Program (JMP) as part of the DR's Milennium Development Goals (MDG)commitment. But that's not the type of stats you seem to be looking for and in any case, they are not broken down into the regional or provincial subcategories it sounds like you need. You can see some of that data summarized at this link.
If such stats exist -- and are recent or kept current -- the entity most likely to have them is SESPAS, the health authority. Good luck getting useful, up-to-date info from them in a timely manner! They have often been slow to respond to my inquiries in the past, if at all.
SESPAS claims to have taken over 1,000 water samples in 2006, but only tested 18 of them for bacteria. [BTW, I think that most of the actual testing is done by labs owned by the National Hydraulic Resources Institute (INDRHI), so might want to check with them too.]
I would try to talk to the Water Dept. of Environmental Health (Salud Ambiental) people and ask them about Health Region IV, which covers the provinces of Barahona, Bahoruco, Independencia & Pedernales. The Env. Health's tel. is 809-541-3121 Extensions 2533-2206, and their general e-mail is saludambiental@sespas.gov.do
There is some old detailed data available on the wastewater situation in the DR done back in 2002 by PAHO (in Spanish), but it sounds like that's not what you're looking for. In case you're interested, let me know.
Hope this helped some.
Best regards,
Keith R
Environment Forum Moderator