Business leader, mayor agree to rescue biggest Dominican river

Santiago.- The City Strategic Development Council (CDES)and mayor elect Abel Martinez on Wednesday stated a willingness to prevent thedisappearance of the Yaque del Norte river, Dominican Republic’s largest andthe second on Hispaniola.

"We all must and should take responsibility, since wehave lived with our backs to the Yaque del Norte river for a long time," saidCDES president Carlos Fondeur, who affirmed having met with the mayor-elect severaltimes for that purpose.

The business leader said lawmakers have done nothing aboutit because it was not their priority. “It’s time to the rescue of the country’smost important river for its great benefits, which contributes not only to thepeople of Santiago, but millions of people in several locations.

He said in other nations the rivers are integrated into theircommunities’ development, as in the case of the Seine in Paris and the Rhine inGermany.

He said Martinez has confirmed his determination to doeverything possible to rescue the Yaque, which is highly polluted along itsbanks. “Dozens of creeks seem like a cesspool.”

The Yaque del Norte is the country’s longest river and Hispaniola’ssecond, after the Artibonite.

Born in the Central Mountains Rusilla peak 2,580 meters inheight, the Yaque’s delta is at Manzanillo Bay in the Atlantic. Its basin area ??ofaround 7,000 square kilometers generates a flow as high as 80 cubic meters persecond, on its 296-kilometer route.