The Academy of Sciences of the Dominican Republic is warning that an environmental impact study seeks to justify major damages to wetlands and beaches in Manzanillo, Montecristi, as reported in Diario Libre. A major industrial and natural gas storage facility is contemplated for the large port complex now underway in the northwestern-most coast of the country.
The Academy of Sciences of the Dominican Republic warned that environmental impact evaluations of projects linked to the Development Plan of the Port of Manzanillo (Pepillo Salcedo) in Montecristi would justify important damages to a wetlands area and the Estero Balsa beach.
Eleuterio Martínez, president of the Academy of Sciences, told Diario Libre that the firm which is developing the environmental impact assessment study of one of the projects, a natural gas plant, “is justifying to a great extent a series of things which are absurd.”
He maintained that, as part of the project, the dredging of part of the wetlands area adjacent to the old Manzanillo Customs House has been justified. “Another is that part of the Estero Balsa beach is going to be filled with lime (caliche),” said Martínez. The president of the Academy of Sciences highlighted: “That beach is the greatest beauty that the area has and that means ruining the tourist potential that it has.”
Martínez told Diario Libre that the developers intend to build the plant on the very shore of Estero Balsa National Park. He warned: “The other thing is that since it is a thermoelectric or natural gas plant, the engines must be cooled and for that they will use seawater and then pour it back into the sea again and it is an area where the manatee and many species, which are native to other places, come to reproduce.”
The president of the Academy of Sciences acknowledged that the development of Montecristi and the Northwest Line cannot wait any longer. “All the official efforts to change the destiny of the towns of the border area, are laudable and enjoy the support and accompaniment of the Academy of Sciences,” he said. But then he added: “It lacks logic that to achieve development it is necessary to first destroy to then have to rebuild.”
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Diario Libre
13 April 2023