At an event held at the Presidential Palace in Santo Domingo yesterday, Monday 4 March, the Medina administration formally announced its plan to build a new San Juan de la Maguana-Santiago via Yabonico-Moncion roadway connection. The highway has met with strong opposition on the grounds that it would be more cost-effective and less harmful to the environment to restore existing highways than to cut through the forests for a new roadway.
While presenting the plan, Medina stated that the northern region is home to 36% of the population and the south 18% and therefore the highway will expand the internal market. He said that the highway construction would not begin this year because he did not want to be accused of singling out his native province, San Juan, for favoritism in his decision-making.
Medina argued that the new road would bring savings in fuel consumption, transport time, and would boost the economy and create new jobs, improve farming competitiveness and reduce congestion on the Duarte Highway. It says the highway will help fight forest fires by providing direct routes for firefighting equipment, and will lead to an increase in forestation of areas that have been devastated by slash and burn farming practices. The President said that it would also help forestry production. The highway will be built respecting biodiversity, based on models in Chile, said Medina. He went on to say that the new link between the regions would have a great impact on young people’s cultural development and education because it would provide them with access to universities and cultural activities in the north.
The Presidency says that President Medina considers the highway to be of high interest for trade and ecological tourism in the Dominican Republic. It says that the Consejo Estrategico de Santiago (Strategic Council) has described it as a project that will create a logistical platform for the center of the nation. Another advantage is that it will enable the application of Law 28-01 on Border Development and will provide a boost to development in the southwest and northwest of the country.
During the event several other people spoke, including the rector of the Pontifical Catholic University Madre y Maestra, Monsignor Agripino Nunez Collado, Chamber of Deputies president Abel Martinez, Dominican Consul in Haiti, Ramon de la Rosa, Santiago Strategic Development Council chairman Engineer Carlos Fondeur, Dominican Agricultural Board (JAD) executive vice-president Osmar Benitez, and Juan Carlos Jaquez and Julio Marinez who read a statement proclaiming their support for the project.
But the planned highway has been the subject of considerable opposition. The same geographer who mapped Pedernales to disprove the government’s claim that it would not affect protected areas when announcing the Bahia de las Aguilas deal to legalize fraudulent property titles in February, Jose Ramon Martinez Batlle in his blog raises important points now, disputing government arguments that the proposed Yabonico-Moncion highway would be the best option for the region.
He says that the government has said it would build a 4-6km tunnel under the tropical forests. But he says that the forests extend for at least 40km, of which 22km are of stable and mature forests. He asks what will happen to the forests and says we all know the answer: “subsistence farming, real estate speculation, forestry fires, mining activities, degrading of forests and water resources, in other words, bread for today, hunger for tomorrow.”
Martinez proposes an alternative route from Bohechio, via Padre las Casas, to Constanza, which would benefit already existing towns. Former Minister of Environment Frank Moya Pons has also defended that option.
He challenges the government’s claims that the highway would serve to help put out forest fires and reduce slash and burn farming. He said that on the contrary, experience has shown that many forest fires occur near highways and subsistence farms locate their slash and burn agriculture near roadways.
He said that Chile has six million inhabitants and 15 times the area of the Dominican Republic so the two countries are not comparable.
Martinez says that there is no need to destroy 40km of prime forests for young people to have access to university. He says the Bohechio-Padre Las Casas-Constanza connection will get them there faster and will not take as long to build.
He says the government has not announced the exact length of the proposed road. He said that the distance from Moncion to San Juan is more than 180km. The proposed Bohechio-Padre Las Casas-Constanza route combined with existing roadways reduces the distance to 157km.
The Cibao Ecological Society (Soeci) has repeatedly expressed its rejection of the government proposal on the grounds it would deliver a lethal blow to the environment and natural resources. Soeci spokesman, Andres Blanco said that the environmental, technical and economical analysis does not favor the road that would cross the Central Mountain Range affecting national parks. “Because of the altitude, it would have very difficult layout, damaging river basins and reducing in a few years part of the water that currently irrigates farmlands and aqueducts of large areas of the country in the southern and northwestern regions,” Andres Blanco told the press, as reported in Diario Libre.
http://www.presidencia.gob.do/noticia.php?type=release&id=1479
www.geografiafisica.org/2013/03/04/carretera-cibao-sur-argumentos-no-convincentes/
www.geografiafisica.org/2013/03/02/carretera-cibao-sur-por-que-empecinarse-en-danar-los-recursos-naturales-analicemos-las-alternativas-debidamente-informados/