Three weeks after the mayor of Haina authorized the dumping of refuse collected in the capital in his area by the Armed Forces and the city council of Santo Domingo for a period of 15 days, he is now calling for an end to the arrangement. Manolo Mesa Morillo has sent a letter to the Minister of the Armed Forces, General Ivan Aquiles Hernández Oleaga, asking him to stop the dumping of refuse in Haina’s now overloaded dump. It is being transported to Haina due to the inability of the Duquesa dump in Santo Domingo to receive all the refuse collected in the National District. According to the Listin Diario newspaper, between 15 and 20 trucks are arriving in Haina every day, using a dump that normally receives only six to seven truck-loads of refuse per day.
The Attwoods Dominicana company, under contract to the Santo Domingo city council to collect refuse in the National District, claims that it has been authorized to transport it to Haina, while the mayor of Santo Domingo, Rafael Subervi Bonilla, has publicly distanced himself from the arrangement. Since the contract between Attwoods and the city council commenced in 1992, there have been numerous public disputes between the former mayor Rafael Corporán de los Santos and now Mr. Subervi, who both claim that the company has not fulfilled its part of the agreement. Attwoods has denied the charges, and countered that it has done a more than adequate job under difficult circumstances.
The main problem, say most experts, is that the National District’s only current dump is the Duquesa. In the 1980’s, there were four: one in Guaricano, one near Rio Haina, one in San Isidro and the Duquesa. By 1990, only the Duquesa remained open. Although there were plans to construct three new refuse dumps during the term of Mr. Corporán de los Santos (1990-94), nothing was done. The overloading of Duquesa caused a fire in 1995 that posed a threat to the health of residents in the surrounding area.