Santo Domingo.– Geologist Osiris de Leon said that 90 percent of the water consumed in Santo Domingo is the one discharged from toilets and goes directly and untreated to the groundwater.
As reported in El Nuevo Diario on Sunday, De Leon warned that mishandling of groundwater poses a tremendous risk to the population’s health, and could lead to a bacteriological problem and an epidemic due to the consumption of highly contaminated water.
According to the expert, who recently published his book "Challenges of Urban Water in the Americas," discharges of sewage from Santo Domingo’s nearly 3.5 million inhabitants send 7,000 tons of excrement to the groundwater daily.
He also explained that Health authorities should carry out bacteriological studies in tourist destinations such as Boca Chica, Punta Cana and Bavaro, for 100 percent of the water consumed in these locations come from the groundwater.