Areas of Santo Domingo North and East municipalities still struggle with garbage accumulation

Santo Domingo – Garbage collection seems challenging for the new municipal authorities, even with a war declared against this problem. At the same time, some Santo Domingo North and East area residents continue to be outraged by the accumulation of waste in the streets.

In Santo Domingo Norte, in the sector of Los Guaricanos, Emma Balaguer Street suffers the most from waste accumulation and the authorities’ indifference. The residents indicated that the garbage truck passes by but does not pick up the waste.

“When Carlos Guzmán was there, the garbage was every half hour and some garbage collectors passed by up to three times. There was never any garbage around here, now the mice are eating you, there never used to be garbage there”, said Yeni Medina, who has lived in this area for about 30 years.

According to the residents interviewed, the truck had passed by moments before but ignored the garbage accumulated there. After the Listin Diario journalists visited this area, they found that in Emma Balaguer, there are at least three garbage dumps placed a short distance from each other. Almost at the end of the stretch, one of the garbage trucks of the mayor’s office was found, but the vehicle was out of order.

In other areas of the sector, the piles were not so high, but a few stacked bags or lines of black bags could be seen. These bags seemed to have grass in them as a result of the green area where they were located. There were also containers full of garbage, where citizens said they “could not cope with it.”

In the case of Santo Domingo East, an area in which Mayor Dio Astacio is carrying out his “war against garbage” and in which he also intends to eliminate 100 garbage dumps, the residents understand that this fight must be accompanied by municipal police, so that chaos does not arise again.

In addition to municipal police, the residents consulted believe that a frequent garbage collection schedule should be organized by the municipality and that it should be publicized so that people will be aware of it, since they also believe that “nobody is going to eat the garbage” and that this is why they will continue to throw it in public spaces.

A makeshift dump continues to operate on El Faro Avenue, in Villa Duarte, and although at the time of the tour it was not saturated, it could be observed how a citizen on a motorcycle threw a bag in this place, adding it to others that were already there.

“They put a municipal police officer, day and night, and people will get used to it. Up to five or six buses of tourists pass through there, one thing that is next to the lighthouse (in Colón), that dump was one of the first ones that Astacio should have eliminated,” said David García about the situation.

Although some areas which used to be the most garbage-ridden in the surroundings of the Columbus Lighthouse, Iberoamerican Avenue or Los Mameyes, now have colorful vans for the deposit of waste, Maquiteria, however, is another of the areas where a garbage dump continues to operate.

No education

For a municipal policeman who works in the area of the Monument to the Bible, built in front of the Columbus Lighthouse, and who did not want to reveal his identity, the problem of garbage comes because people are not educated.

He affirmed that during his working hours from 5:00 in the afternoon to 8:00 in the morning, he has to keep his eyes open because if he is careless for a second, up to 15 garbage bags are thrown there.

“This is out in the open that one has to be and it is chaos with the people, they even send the little boys to throw out the garbage and they take a specific time to throw it out, after 7:00 at night this is chaos. It is clean around here, but it is not easy,” he said.