The enormous hydroelectric and irrigation project located at Monte Grande in Barahona province in the southwest of the Dominican Republic was inaugurated on 25 January 2024 by President Luis Abinader. The President boarded a Navy patrol boat to tour the lake behind the enormous reservoir wall.
The government announced the inauguration of the dam’s phase one and a phase two to be completed by 2017. Abinader called the dam the most massive hydro project to be built in the Caribbean.
Construction of the first phase took 14 years. The project was carried out by the National Institute for Hydraulic Resources (Indrhi) and the completion of the first phase was financed by the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (BCIE). The Dominican government had initially borrowed funds for the dam from the Brazilian Export Agency when the project was begun in 2009.
President Abinader spoke about how this project will provide safety for the 51 communities downriver from the dam. The flooding of the Yaque del Sur is legendary in its destruction.
The government has underway the design, economic practicality, and technical studies for the additional parts of the dam project. These are the complementary aspects that cover electricity generation, water supplies for towns and cities downstream, irrigation water and the repair of dikes and irrigation canals along the banks of the Yaque del Sur River. These are estimated to cost another US$336 million, a sum that is included in this year’s budget. The Presidency says the complementary works would be ready by 2017.
In 2018, the complete dam was said to cost US$401 million. The government in its official release on the project did not detail the final cost of the first phase. Diario Libre reports sources indicate it cost much more than US$588 million.
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Presidency
Indrhi
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Diario Libre
Diario Libre
Listin Diario
30 January 2024