At a press conference held yesterday at the National Palace, the Director of the Santo Domingo Aqueduct and Sewer Corporation (CAASD), engineer Euclides Sánchez, announced that the Fernández Government plans to invest RD$1 billion over the next year and a half to solve Santo Domingo’s longstanding water supply problem. RD$300 million of this will be spent on damming the Higüero River to serve new aqueducts. Another major project foreseen under the program will be the construction of a series of wells in the vicinity of the Brujuela y Casuit River. Sánchez that the $1 billion price tag does not include the cost of proper maintenance of the new water sources and aqueducts, which is of critical importance. He said 58% of current CAASD production is lost due to leaks, water taps left open and related causes. Paying for such new investments and improving service is difficult, he said, because currently only 10% of CAASD’s clients actually pay their bills.
