Environmentalists and investors have put forward a series of recommendations to save and stop the destruction of the southeastern coastline between Santo Domingo and San Pedro de Macoris. Of special interest is the area around Boca Chica, Juan Dolio, and Guayacanes. Among the problems being looked at are beach erosion, the reduction of the fish and the coral reefs and pollution issues tied to local industrial and domestic discharges. Other issues are the visual pollution of the areas and violation of the 60-meter limit from ebb tide where construction is prohibited.
Francisco Geraldes, the director of the Marine Biology Research Center at the UASD, (CIBIMA) told Hoy reporters that any recovery process had to be tied to a control of pollutants and the erosion caused by the construction of the infrastructure for hotels and housing. A fishing ban in the lagoons is also considered to be necessary in order to allow the local fauna to recover. Raul Valette, a member of the Boca Chica Merchants Association, recommended that breakwaters be removed in order to allow the free movement of the tides. The Higuamo River was also the object of many recommendations since it is one of the principal sources of contamination in the area. Radhamez Martinez Aponte of the Juan Dolio and Guayacanes Hotel Association said that the Higuamo has not been cleaned up for 50 years. The Ministry of the Environment also pointed out that it was necessary to control the industrial discharges that are adding heavy metals, nitrogen and hydrogen sulfide to the waters of the Higuamo.