Action Taken to Protect The Rivers

[Garyexpat]

Environment busts aggregates extractors, nabs 28 trucks

<p>Santo Domingo.- The National Environmental Protection Service (SENPA), carried out an operation this weekend in the provinces of San Cristóbal, Peravia, Monseñor Nouel, La Vega and Sánchez Ramírez, in which it seized 28 vehicles for the extraction of materials from rivers, detained 33 people...

dominicantoday.com

I'm glad to see this. I have a friend who has been pushing this issue for some time. Protecting their natural resources must happen lest they become like Haiti. I just hope this isn't a one and done, and back to business as usual.

 

[LindseyKaufman]

It is hypocrisy. The way it works here in Jamao is this. Trucks come illegally to load rocks or sand. Someone calls medio ambiente to report it. Medio ambiente calls the truck driver and warns him that so and so just reported him and to be careful. Truck driver graciously pays a propina to medio ambiente.

And as much as I love Jamao, the residents rant and rave about those who take natural resources from their river. But when they need sand for cement or rocks- off they go to the river to collect what they need.

I am also told that one nearby Ferreteria has a large truck that collects sand for them to sell.

And I know for a fact because I witnessed it first hand- the local government was hauling truckload after truckload of rock from the river one Sunday. When the mayor happened to pass me in his car and I called it to his attention, he said- oh, but we have permission from the medio ambiente.

So as is usually the case, the crackdown is selective and hypocritical.

Just my humble opinion.

 

[JD Jones]

Environment busts aggregates extractors, nabs 28 trucks

<p>Santo Domingo.- The National Environmental Protection Service (SENPA), carried out an operation this weekend in the provinces of San Cristóbal, Peravia, Monseñor Nouel, La Vega and Sánchez Ramírez, in which it seized 28 vehicles for the extraction of materials from rivers, detained 33 people...

dominicantoday.com

I'm glad to see this. I have a friend who has been pushing this issue for some time. Protecting their natural resources must happen lest they become like Haiti. I just hope this isn't a one and done, and back to business as usual.

These guys are just brutal with the rivers in San Cristobal and Nigua. Mainly because they're the closest to SD.

I see trucks coming out in the early morning and on weekends all the time, when Medio Ambiente isn't working.

 

[Garyexpat]

It is hypocrisy. The way it works here in Jamao is this. Trucks come illegally to load rocks or sand. Someone calls medio ambiente to report it. Medio ambiente calls the truck driver and warns him that so and so just reported him and to be careful. Truck driver graciously pays a propina to medio ambiente.

And as much as I love Jamao, the residents rant and rave about those who take natural resources from their river. But when they need sand for cement or rocks- off they go to the river to collect what they need.

I am also told that one nearby Ferreteria has a large truck that collects sand for them to sell.

And I know for a fact because I witnessed it first hand- the local government was hauling truckload after truckload of rock from the river one Sunday. When the mayor happened to pass me in his car and I called it to his attention, he said- oh, but we have permission from the medio ambiente.

So as is usually the case, the crackdown is selective and hypocritical.

Just my humble opinion.

Yes Lindsey, like I wrote ". I just hope this isn't a one and done, and back to business as usual." I have lived here long enough to expect that to more often be the case.

 

[Garyexpat]

These guys are just brutal with the rivers in San Cristobal and Nigua. Mainly because they're the closest to SD.

I see trucks coming out in the early morning and on weekends all the time, when Medio Ambiente isn't working.

The other thing that is so great about these trucks is they have either no tarp or a useless tarp covering the stone/sand. I repair the nicks in my windshields made from them because I know it is only a matter of time before I get the next one.

 

[CristoRey]

The other thing that is so great about these trucks is they have either no tarp or a useless tarp covering the stone/sand. I repair the nicks in my windshields made from them because I know it is only a matter of time before I get the next one.

100% agreed.

 

[AlterEgo]

These guys are just brutal with the rivers in San Cristobal and Nigua. Mainly because they're the closest to SD.

I see trucks coming out in the early morning and on weekends all the time, when Medio Ambiente isn't working.

By our house too. There’s a small stream not far away, and we frequently see water trucks back up to it filling up to head out to sell it.