The director of the Emergency Operations Center (COE), General Juan Manuel Méndez, called for city governments and national and municipal authorities to crack down on individuals who build structures in vulnerable places, as reported in Diario Libre. Most of the property damage caused in the country by hurricanes Irma and Maria were houses built too close to rivers and streams and on vulnerable areas, such as natural depressions. General Mendez highlighted the Dominican Republic is on the Atlantic hurricane path and there are 14 active seismic faults running through national territory.
He said the limitations of the suitability of land for buildings have to be respected, and construction should not happen near rivers, springs or gullies. Mendez said building on low-lying areas is not wise, given the extreme susceptibility to flooding. “We as authorities, whether local or national, must exercise our responsibilities. For example, mayors cannot be flexible when it comes to enforcing land use regulations,” he stated.
Mendez said that municipal authorities in some regions are responsible for allowing housing settlements to be built in inadequate locations, as these government officials bend to public pressure to permit the construction of dwellings in danger zones. He called for the federal government to pressure local authorities to not allow settlements in flood prone areas.
Méndez said that to mitigate disasters effective communication and planning between the general population and authorities are needed. General Méndez highlighted the importance of land use definition in the country when participating in a Diario Libre Diálogo Libre interview.
Mendez also called for a widespread educational campaign to create awareness of risk management, reaching out to people in schools and universities. “I understand education can have an influence; it is about people making a self-assessment, not when there is a disaster alert, but well ahead of time,” he said. “The population still does not understand these events cannot be controlled, over nature there is no control,” he said.
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Diario Libre
3 October 2017
