Given the incidence of a stationary drought in the Dominican Republic and the call from the authorities to ration drinking water, residents in sectors of the National District and Santo Domingo Este have adopted measures to save water. This is the case of Yokasta, a resident of the Los Mina sector of Santo Domingo Este, who indicated that for about three weeks the water supply there went from three days to one day. “The water used to arrive on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays, now it is only arriving on Sundays,” she said.
“You have to reduce the usage because imagine living without water, (…) I try to wash fewer clothes, not let them pile up because without water there is no life,” she said. Measures on household chores, such as those taken by Yokasta, have been assumed by residents of neighborhoods such as Villa Consuelo, the case of Deborah, who, so far, has not had problems with the supply.
Reporters from Diario Libre toured Villa Francisca, where they observed community members carrying several buckets of water from a cistern to stock up. In the sector, there are men, some elderly, who are dedicated to moving tanks with water to the homes of their neighbors for prices ranging from 100 to 250 pesos.