It is normal that national and local authorities ignore laws prohibiting human settlements in highly vulnerable areas. As a result, there is a proliferation of human settlements around ravines, river basins and other vulnerable places, complains municipal expert Waldys Taveras.
When there are heavy rains, the residents in these low-lying areas suffer the flooding of their houses, with river waters, toxic wastes, and garbage. With the most recent rains, this practice was exposed when dozens of houses built on the banks of ravines were flooded.
Hoy reports that the Ministry of the Environment, city councils and municipal districts, which according to the provisions of 109 and 110 of Law 64-00 are responsible for regulating the use of land in their demarcations, have failed to act, allowing the takeover of the vulnerable areas. Taveras told Hoy that in the name of the right to housing, human settlements are allowed in vulnerable zones without any type of security control or compliance with minimal construction and public order regulations.
Taveras says that Article 109 of Law 64-00 establishes municipal and National District city councils need to demand the corresponding environmental studies from the proponents of urban and suburban development and expansion projects, in their area of influence, in coordination with the Ministry of Environment.
Moreso, the former alderman for the National District who today is the executive director of the Commonwealth of Greater Santo Domingo (MGSD) says there has been complicity of the police authorities who allow the illegal occupation of public and private properties. He said the judicial authorities do not establish sanctions against those who sponsor these settlements in violation of the law.
Taveras says another reason for the occupation of land bordering the ravines is the certainty these people have that in the name of political populism the authorities will subsequently make the minimum investments in public services infrastructure such as asphalting of streets, public lighting and others in these vulnerable areas.
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Hoy
5 April 2022