The news daily Listin Diario reports that a vigil conducted by its reporters at rivers covered by the new President Decree 296-99 show that the decree is being ignored and the authorities charged with enforcing it are not doing so. Observation of the Haina, Isabela, Hig?ero and Ozama rivers found that trucks continued to extract sand, gravel and stones from the river bed in flagrant violation of the decree issued last week. Further, no representatives of the National Police (PN) or the Aqueduct and Sewer Corporation of Santo Domingo (CAASD), the two institutions charged by the decree with its enforcement, were observed checking on the rivers and impeding the work of the extractors. One of the truck drivers questioned by Listin indicated that he did not fear enforcement of the decree, because the owner of his truck was a colonel who had assured him that he would not be touched by the law.Meanwhile, a number of environmental groups have strongly criticized the new decree for limiting its prohibition on materials extraction from riverbeds to just a few rivers, most of which are not the ones most affected by that practice. Most groups have called for the application of the prohibition to be national, or at least to cover the Nizao, Nigua, Yubazo, Yuna, Chav?n and Y?sica rivers, where extraction is said to be causing serious ecological damage to the rivers.
