Dump trashes reputation of discipline in Dominican Republic’s ruling party

Santo Domingo.- In an unusual measure by Dominican Republic’s ruling party (PLD), its Municipal Affairs secretary on Wednesday called on the Environment and Public Health ministries to intervene the Duquesa landfill and declare an emergency, given its "disastrous" situation.

Ignacio Ditrén said the landfill’s crisis and the way it’s being handled concerns the PLD, because diseases such as conjunctivitis and leptospirosis pose a threat to the population, while the resulting heaps of trash could also lead to an environmental crisis.

He said the time has come to impose a definitive solution to the crisis, such as looking for another site, as other cities across the country have done with their landfills. "Dominican Republic doesn’t have any landfill that meets environmental standards thus far and that affects the country’s health, so the matter should be dealt with."

In a press conference at PLD headquarters accompanied by several senior leaders, Ditrén said the country must prepare suitable dump sites and harness methane gas to turn it into energy.

He said however that his position doesn’t mean that the PLD favors the contractor Lajun Corp. in the dispute with the Santo Domingo North City Council -also headed by the ruling party-, because the landfill’s conditions, in his view show they didn’t do a good job either.