DR1 Daily News - Dominican Republic

Once again, there is the call to clean up the Ozama and Isabela rivers that are basically giant sewers at this time, accumulating mostly industrial waste.

However, this time it is the President of the Dominican Republic, Luis Abinader, who is taking up the standard for the huge undertaking. Abinader signed Decree 531-25 that delineates the areas that are to become part of the project.

The areas will fall under the control of the Executor Unit for the Redesign of Barrios and Surroundings (URBE). The unit will have to respect the social and cultural conditions of the people who will be forced to move out from the riversides. There will be community interventions, meetings with community leaders, and solutions worked out with the residents.

This is clearly a repetition of what occurred during the removal of the Barquita barrio on the banks of the Ozama, where the population was moved to a newly created housing development appropriately named the New Barquita. Residents along...