A feature in El Dia by Pedro Julio Sanchez compares the damage done by gravel and construction material companies that extract material from Dominican riverbeds and the environmental damage caused by mining companies like Falcondo. Pedro Julio Sanchez says that the owners of the companies that extract materials from riverbeds are now millionaires at the cost of Dominican rivers. He asks where have the strong opponents to Falcondo mining Loma de Miranda been when it comes to these extraction companies.
“These so-called environmental groups, including some legislators and community kingpins who are currently opposing the government extending the Falcondo contract so it can mine in Loma de Miranda, who are fully aware of the crucial reality of the extermination of Dominican rivers by construction sector businesses, to our knowledge have never taken on such a radical position as they have in the case of the mining company.”
The reporter says that the extraction of construction materials from riverbeds began when former President Joaquin Balaguer launched major construction initiatives. Reportedly, permits for the extraction of the natural resource were initially granted to friends, relatives and military chiefs during the Balaguer regime. As a result, the country’s main rivers including Nigua, Nizao, Yubazo, Yuna, Camu, Yaque del Norte and Yaque del Sur were annihilated. “And those environmentalists have never spoken out, let alone set up campaigns with posters in protest at the extraction areas.”
The writer wonders why there have not been more protests about the pollution in the Ozama and Isabela Rivers by the environmentalists.
The writer also wonders where the environmentalists have been on the issue of the negative consequences of the construction of large hotels on the coasts affecting forests, reefs and mangroves.
The writer also comments that the Barrick Gold operation is more damaging than the proposed Falcondo operation “because they deposit sulfur and cyanide in open pit and the results can now be seen in the bodies of the farmers who live in the vicinity of the company.”