Engineer Horacio Mazara, executive director of the National Institute of Potable Water and Sewage (Inapa), says data shows 25% of the Dominican population does not have access to piped water. He urged Congress to approve the Waters Bill that is being analyzed in the legislature saying it would provide a regulatory framework to reduce wasteful use of water and theft. He also said the bill would enable the government to implement tariffs so the service can be sustainable.
Inapa manages 315 aqueducts nationwide, for 80% of the national coverage. He said the lack of a legal framework affects positive actions by the authorities to ensure water can reach more customers. Mazara spoke during the Weekly Luncheon of Multimedios del Caribe.
“For example, if you have a farm and install a water pipeline sourcing from a river, I cannot bring charges against you,” he said. He said this is in contrast to the existing regulations allow the Ministry of Environment to take action against individuals or companies that extract aggregates from rivers without authorization.
Mazara says that a study shows that around 35% of the potable water provided by the Northwest Aqueduct is used to irrigate commercial farms. He said the farm owners source the water for free. Moreover, he said that unregulated connections to pipelines are also common. He said that this unauthorized extraction of water from aqueducts often times contaminates the potable water. He said Inapa works diligently to improve the potability indexes.
Mazara notes that the potable water bills have been languishing in the legislature for years. He expressed his hope that sooner, rather than later legislation will be approved by Congress during the legislative session that ends in February 2018.
Mazara said the principal objective of the the General Waters Bill is to provide over-arching governmental oversight for the use of untreated water for farms and power generation. The legislation assigns the Ministry of Environment to supervise the policies and practices for this type of water use. On the other hand, the Sectorial Waters Bill establishes the norms for the use of treated and potable water for human consumption and would be overseen by the Ministry of Public Health and a Superintendence of Waters under Inapa supervision. He said that legislators understand and appreciate the importance of both bills and there are legislative special committees working on these issues.
Mazara likewise advocated for the construction of three dams for the storage of potable water at the Chavon, Soco and Sanate rivers in the East. He also said that the province of La Altagracia has a potable water demand of 1.2 cubic meters per second while the aqueduct is only serving 500 liters per second. He said there is a part of Sanate that suffers periods of drought and serves less.
Moreover, he said Inapa has presented to the Presidency a project for the construction of an aqueduct and sewage in Punta Cana where there is overexploitation of ground water and saline intromission. Mazara spoke of the current uncontrolled and unregulated use of groundwater is replete with serious consequences as problems of overdraft of aquifers and salt-water intrusion have emerged in many areas in La Altagracia.
He also mentioned the construction of aqueducts for Ocoa, Sabana Larga, Los Patos in Oviedo, Pedernales and others. Mazara spoke of the salt water barrier project that would impact eight border provinces and their 15 municipalities and that contemplates the construction of 11 new sanitary systems. He described this as an important project in a very vulnerable area in terms of health issues given the proximity to Haiti. This project would be carried out with British cooperation.
Read more in Spanish:
https://www.elcaribe.com.do/2018/11/07/panorama/almuerzo-semanal/el-25-de-la-poblacion-no-tiene-cobertura-de-agua-potable-en-rd/
8 November 2018
