Water is scarce at Dominican SW megaproject

Santo Domingo.- The biggest question raised by the Cabo Rojo-Pedernales tourism development is whether this desert area has the availability of water necessary for a project of this magnitude. The answer is that there is, but only for the first phase and with some specific management recommendations that will guarantee its presence on the taps of the hundreds of thousands of people who will pass through that hotel destination in the future.

The “Cabo Rojo-Pedernales Tourist Load Capacity Study” ordered by the Pro-Pedernales Trust and carried out by the company Russa García y Asociados, of which Diario Libre obtained a copy, establishes the problem of water as one of the main challenges of the ambitious project, because in the province “the population’s access to drinking water is 66%, which means that a large part of it does not have quality water consumption… Access to sanitary services is 37%, another critical aspect in terms of living conditions and health”.

The document points out that there are very few surface water sources in the province, starting with the main one, which is the Pedernales River, which forms the border with Haiti in the south and is dry in that sector most of the year, and the other river is the Mulito, a tributary of the Pedernales. “There are no measurements of water consumption per capita. The council doesn’t know. These are studies that must be done, ”says the expert analysis.