Water shortage reaches critical levels in Santiago’s Cienfuegos area

The National Action Day against dengue, which aims to carry out a fumigation operation in every home and the cleaning of public spaces to eliminate breeding sites, began in this province last Saturday morning, the 21st, in several sectors of the Santiago Oeste municipal district, with a team made up of the Ministry of Public Health, the Ministry of the Environment and the Dominican Municipal League.

The program is facing an adverse situation which, with the outbreak of dengue fever sweeping the country and overflowing with patients to the hospitals, has worried the communities of some neighborhoods and localities, such as Cienfuegos, where the day began in the province of Santiago.

Due to the interruption in the water service, residents have had to store water in barrels, water tanks, and tanks, which can encourage mosquito breeding.

According to Carmen Liz, a community member of the locality, when the water leaves, it lasts up to five days without returning, which forces her and her neighbors to accumulate it in water barrels and tanks to supply themselves during their chores.

She comments that in the whole building where she lives, “there is not a person who has not been infected with dengue fever,” including children.

Jesús Abreu, a resident of the locality above, affirms that in that locality, the supply arrives every day and sometimes even lasts up to three or four days without returning, a situation that forces them to accumulate water in buckets and other containers that they have to wash every so often, as a precautionary measure against the disease caused by the Aedes Aegypti mosquito.

“Chaos,” says Abreu when asked about the primary service in the neighborhood.

The equipment for the day consists of 20 motor pumps for fumigation and three pickup trucks.