The Santiago Water and Sewer Corporation (Coraasan) has just released a statement calling for water rationing by all of the people served by the agency. This comes in response to the drought that stretches over most of the island. Andres Burgos, the head of Coraasan, noted that long-range forecasts are not seeing any significant rains over the next three months.
The water company currently has a 27 million gallon per day shortfall. The area served by Coraasan usually consumes 140 million gallons per day. Still, the water level of the Tavera-Bao reservoir was at 315 mt, when 327.5 mt above sea level is considered to be normal.
Farmers, growers, and cattle ranchers along the Cibao Valley are now in crisis mode due to the lack of water in the Yaque River.
Further south, works are expected to start soon to remove the sedimentation at two of the main suppliers of water to Greater Santo Domingo: the dams at Valdesia and Aguacate. This is intended to increase capital city water supplies.
The project for extracting the sediment from these reservoirs is expected to be copied at other dam sites, such as Tavera-Bao, where some estimates say that 50% of the initial storage capacity has been lost to sedimentation.
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Diario Libre
Listin Diario
3 April 2023