Despite the efforts of the Armed Forces, who were ordered by President Balaguer to help the Attwoods Dominicana company to collect refuse in Santo Domingo, streets in some sectors of the capital are still without a refuse collection service. Dr. Antonio Carreras, who operates a clinic in the poor sector of Cristo Rey, has warned that if the refuse continues piled up in populous neighborhoods, a series of infectious diseases could break out and quickly turn into epidemics. His opinion has been echoed by the Director of the National Department of Epidemics Control, a branch of the Ministry of Public Health. Dr. Elizabeth Gomez warned of the danger of the presence of the refuse to the quality of running water, among other things. Even in middle and upper class neighborhoods, claims Dr. Gomez, there are piles of refuse which she called “improvised dumps” which increase the presence of insects and rodents. The real danger, she says, is for children in poor neighborhoods affected by the problem whose nutrition is deficient and whose defenses cannot combat the adverse affects of the accumulated rubbish.