As long ago as three years, the communities of La China and Bajabonico Abajo have been cut off from the rest of Puerto Plata province. Storms such as Hugo and Maria caused flooding that wiped out or severely weakened the bridges connecting these small villages to the rest of the province. This severely affects how this farm area gets its produce to market. The Ministry of Public Works (MOPC) has said that they are going to fix this situation, but as of this writing nothing has happened in over a year.
The president of a local neighborhood group, Rafael Antonio Rodriguez, told El Caribe reporters that rains force students to forsake a small causeway across the river and take motoconchos to school in Altamira, the district center. If they try and cross the river, they have to wade. The local mayor of Altamira, Fidencio Colon, said that in the case of the bridge in Bajabonico Abajo de Rio Grande, the situation dates from 2017, during hurricane Maria, when a flood wiped out the structure. The bridge in La China Vieja collapsed after being weakened by floodwaters, when a heavy truck tried to cross. The lack of a bridge cuts off the community from the new local cemetery, and forces people to travel over five kilometers instead of the 500 meters needed when the bridge is in place.
Among the communities that are now hard to reach are Palmar Grande Bajabonico Arriba, Agua Larga, Los Picos as well as even small places in the agricultural area of the Northern Mountains.
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El Caribe
7 October 2019