A report in Listin Diario on Monday, 5 November 2018, looks into the new demographics for the city of Santiago. The city has sprawled out to an area of 120 square kilometers and a population estimated at around 1,225,000 inhabitants. An additional 100,000 to 125,000 people enter and leave the city every day.
Santiago is the second largest city in the country. 20 years ago the city had an extension of 70 square kilometers and a population of around 685,000 people. Experts say the expansion has seen the conversion of farm land into urban neighborhoods full of houses and shopping areas.
The experts say the city is now home to thousands that have migrated from other provinces, from Haiti and countries abroad.
Mayor Abel Martínez told Listin Diario that the flow of new residents is straining the city’s capacity to supply drinking water, rainwater drainage, sewage and other services.
The executive director of the Strategic Development Council of Santiago, Reinado Peguero told Listin Diario that the growth of the city should not be more than three square kilometers per year. He said Santiago, nevertheless, has been experiencing growth of five square kilometers per year. He favored city regulations that stimulate vertical growth, so that more productive farm land is not affected.
City planner Irving Vargas said Santiago urgently needs urban renewal works. Former director of urban planning of the Santiago city, Gilberto Serulle, said that the urban plan drafted during his term at the city government, was never implemented. He said this has lead to the present chaos in the city, evidenced in the congestion at the entrance and exit to the city. The city is also affected by a deficit in drinking water.
The president of the Federation of Neighborhood Boards of Santiago, Andrés Ramos, said that the chaos in Santiago is due to unchecked population growth. Likewise, spokesman for the Coordinator of Community Organizations and Neighborhood Boards of Santiago, Jose Alberto Peña said that people immigrate to Santiago from other areas in the country and abroad and demand services, but as in the case of the Haitians, do not pay for these services.
Read more in Spanish:
Listin Diario
7 November 2018
