After 11 days of intense efforts, the Ministry of Public Works and the National District city government announced the waters of the Santo Domingo shoreline have been cleaned up. The effort followed after tons of plastics flowed down the Ozama River to the Malecón shoreline and filled the beachheads at Montesinos and San Gil Fort. Both beaches for decades have been off limits for bathing due to the contamination in the Caribbean Sea waters.
But when the net that holds the plastics garbage in the Ozama River at the level of the barge bridge was lifted by the Navy after the heavy rains on 10 July 2018 caused more garbage than usual to accumulate, the trash flowed down to the Malecon. And, the tons of accumulated garbage generated a bad rap for the country, as videos and photos were shared by the media around the world.
Environmentalists in the Dominican Republic and abroad have urged the nation to begin managing the use of plastics.
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El Caribe
24 July 2018
