The mayor of Haina, Manolo Mesa Morillo, has announced that due to the problems in the Duquesa dump, where the concentration of refuse and resultant toxic gases pose an environmental hazard to the surrounding areas, the central government has ordered refuse collected in the National District to be dumped in Haina. In related news, the public relations war has continued between the city council of Santo Domingo and the Attwoods Dominicana company, which is under contract to collect refuse in many areas of the National District.
While Attwoods claims to have honored the contract and that the sorry state of the Duquesa dump is the main cause of the accumulation of refuse in the National District, the city council maintains that Attwoods has not honored its side of the agreement, which commenced in 1992. Last month, the Armed Forces were ordered to assist in the effort to rid the streets of Santo Domingo of accumulated refuse, and have helped alleviate the situation. For the next two weeks, Haina’s dump will be used for the National District’s refuse, while work is done to clear access routes at Duquesa for Attwoods Dominicana’s trucks and to prepare new sites for the dumping of rubbish.