Learn about the three challenges the country faces in managing water resources properly.

In the Dominican Republic, water resources are sufficient to meet projected water demand for the coming years, but average availability in very dry years is estimated to fall to 904.5 cubic meters per inhabitant per year, a parameter similar to that of countries suffering from chronic shortages.

The data is contained in the consultation document used to prepare the 2030 Land Use Plan, which explains that this information is relevant for climate change adaptation policies.

Based on this premise, it is proposed that the country faces three major challenges in terms of water resource management. 

The first is to maintain the current level of per capita availability, which involves addressing spatial distribution issues and increasing regulated channels. 

The second aims to increase investment in the restoration of watersheds and ecosystems that contribute to regulating the hydrological cycle and that, at the time of the analysis, were in a critical state of degradation.

And the third challenge is to transform the management model, historically focused on expanding supply, into one that emphasizes controlling demand and increasing efficiency in water use, as established in the 2030 National Development Strategy.

Shortage index

The document highlights that, according to the Water Scarcity Index, established in 1997 by UNESCO and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), there are levels according to the percentage of use of available water resources in a country: low, moderate, medium-high, and high, the latter corresponding to countries that use more than 40% of available resources.

In the case of the Dominican Republic, and according to the estimated upward trend in water demand by 2025, the country would be using 37.62% of the total estimated availability and more than 100% of the safe availability.

According to the document, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and UNESCO establish that when the Water Scarcity Index reaches the level of the Dominican Republic, attention must be paid to the intensive management of water resources and the demands placed on them, since the unsustainable use of water may be becoming a limiting factor for economic growth.