Engineer Augusto Rodríguez Gallart said irresponsible business practices and tree-cutting by indigent farmers are the main causes of the demise of Dominican rivers. In an interview in El Siglo, the highly reputed Dominican water resource expert, said that factories and companies that are contaminating the rivers by dumping their waste and an increase in the migration of Haitian subsistence farmers are to blame. Ecologists have blamed construction material extraction for the demise of the rivers. But Rodríguez explained that the problem is at the source, where the rivers are born. He urged that Congress pass the Water Code (Código de Agua) that has been dormant in Congress for five years now. The bill establishes funds to be used for maintenance of reservoirs and for the planting of the river sources. He says that the increase in construction materials is a consequence of the drying up of the rivers and not the main cause. Rodríguez says that the increase in migration of indigent Haitians establishing themselves in scantly inhabited mountain areas where they are taking over state-owned lands and cutting down trees to plant plantains has had . Haiti is a land that has been almost 100% deforested by the same negative farming practices. The lack of protection of the river sources is contributing to the increase in sediments entering the reservoirs, which reduces their lifespan. Eng. Rodríguez explained that abundant trees in the river source areas allow for the soil to retain water in the springs that feed the river when it is not raining. Well forested river source areas prevents the erosion of sediment that is washed down the rivers. Recently the government ordered a ban on extraction of contamination materials, after San Cristóbal province leaders and ecologists blamed this for the demise of its rivers. News reports say that the extraction of materials continues, though to a lesser degree.
