DR1 Daily News - Dominican Republic

For more than 500 years, there has never been flooding in the Colonial City. The reason, the first governor of the first city of the Americas, Santo Domingo, Nicolas de Ovando, at the time commanded that underground drainage so large a person could walk inside the drainage be built to ensure the waters of hurricanes would flow south to the Caribbean Sea. Ovando would be in Santo Domingo when a hurricane hit and knew first hand the importance of adequate drainage.

For the TV program “Esta Noche con Mariasela,” on Monday, 13 May 2024, Alvarez interviewed Waldys Taveras, a leading city expert, who explained the problem was created by the contractors of the renovations in the Colonial City who installed drainage piping that did not have the same capacity of the 500-year old system.

Taveras explained that the contractors did not take into consideration the...