European Union funds are behind the new effort to improve four gullies located in the Santo Domingo slums of Capotillo, Simon Bolivar and La Zurza. The resident in the environs of the gullies use these as garbage dumps, causing major health hazards to the barrios. The Sabamar program is an investment of RD$36 million, of which 75% is contributed by the European Union. The works call for the installation of cement pipes to channel the waters.
The improvement of the gullies is part of a broader project costing RD$57.5 million that includes funds to rehabilitate a water storage tank of the Moscoso Puello Hospital, which will also serve residents in the slums of Gualey, Las Canitas and 24 de Abril.
Onofre Rojas, in charge of the Office for European Funds for Development (ONFED) is optimistic that by the end of this year the works would be completed.
He said that the office has RD$600 million to improve 18 gullies located in different areas of the city of Santo Domingo and for resolving basic potable water projects.
Meanwhile, El Caribe reports a complaint of Elsa Cuevas, president of a community group. “They can close all the gullies, but if sewage treatment plants are not installed, the pollution will continue because the waters will continue to reach the river,” she complained. Onofre Rojas said that it is responsibility of the government and the municipality to build the sewage treatment plants. Juan Martinez de Velasco, director of Sabamar, said there is the possibility that small sewage treatment plants can be built for the four gullies that will be intervened.
The project is part of EUR250 million (approximately RD$10 billion) through 2007.