The Director of the Santo Domingo Water and Sewer Company (CAASD) has asked the Director of the National Institute of Water Resources (INDRHI) to divert 75% of the water generated by the Valdesia Dam to Santo Domingo’s uses. Currently, 50% of Valdesia’s water is directed toward the capital, a quantity that nonetheless leaves "the majority of neighborhoods" in need of supplemental water deliveries, "once or twice a week," according to CAASD executive Euclides Sanchez. The supplemental 25%, if approved, would divert the liquid from rice and plantain cultivation to human use. Neighborhoods along the capital’s western and northern fringes have been hardest hit by water scarcity, according to Sanchez, due to the low level of the Haina River, from whence they derive their supply. As drought has diminished reservoirs, and environmental degradation has shrunk river flow, CAASD has resorted to well water exploration. "We are rehabilitating various wells around the capital, " said Sanchez, who appealed to citizens to practice all forms of water conservation.
