Environment Minister Orlando Jorge Mera has announced a major effort to improve several major rivers, including the Nizao, Haina, Yuna and Camú, during 2022. The efforts are aimed at re-channeling these rivers back to their original riverbeds. The program includes educating people who live close to these rivers.
Sand and gravel extraction by construction firms or their suppliers has seriously affected riverbeds. In 2021, the Ministry of Environment issued around 2,000 citations for persons or entities violating the Environmental Law 64-00. Most of these cases were carried against companies irregularly extracting construction materials from riverbeds. Environmental permits that were issued illegally in the past have been revoked.
Alongside these efforts is a similar plan for Los Haitises, the region just west of the Samana Bay that is the source of hundreds of rivers and streams that are vital to the eastern part of the country and the area around Santo Domingo.
Jorge Mera announced the Ministry would also start efforts to recover the Bahoruco Sierra National Park, a cloud forest that is being devastated by illegal charcoal harvesting.
Minister Jorge Mera also touched upon the issue of the open-sky refuse dumps throughout the country. He noted that a recent public-private trust was signed last week to deal with the important environmental issue.
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Diario Libre
20 December 2021