Haitians continue to extract sand from the Masacre River at full speed

Dajabón – To the detriment of the tributary and without any control, Haitian civilians have intensified the extraction of aggregates from the Masacre River for sale in towns of Juana Méndez and other areas of Haiti.

Every week, Haitians fill more than 30 Daihatsu trucks with sand daily without rest. Due to the great demand, they have added three-tire cargo engines for the transfer and marketing of the material, a military source told this newspaper.

Reporters from this newspaper captured the moment of how Haitians operate to extract aggregates irregularly. Civilians enter the river with white buckets, and after filling them, they pile them on the bank while other of their compatriots, with shovels, mount them on trucks and cargo engines to take them from the area. This practice has been going on for more than four years.

The priest and director of the San Ignacio de Loyola Technological Institute of Dajabón, José Rafael Nuñez, alias Chepe, said that extracting materials from the Masacre River damages the population through the aqueducts that depend on the tributary, the irrigation of agricultural plantations, and the environmental damage that extraction represents.

“It is a very serious problem that is done to the environment, we have to address and see how we can dialogue between Dominicans and Haitians because it is a common good and the two parties take sand,” Chepe said.

The rector of ITESIL, José Núñez, emphasized that the extraction of materials from rivers causes incalculable damage because if the sand is removed from the tributary, the water will deplete.