It is necessary to speak again about the immense collapse that the capital of the Republic had during the recent deluge and about the historical carelessness that generates these consequences. We point out the historical nature of the issue, since very little has been done in the last 50 years to prevent a city of our category from facing such a situation due to an oversight that, despite the decades, has not yet been resolved. taken the first step to correct this serious problem.
Let me explain: the main political organizations that currently dominate the national scene are the Modern Revolutionary-Dominican Revolutionary parties. They have ruled three full terms (1978-1986, 2000-2004, and two years of the PRM), for a total of 14 years.
Dominican Liberation Party-Fuerza del Pueblo, four complete terms (1996-2000, 2004-2020), add up to 20 years. Social Christian Reformist Party, five full terms (1966-1978, 1986-1994, plus two half terms (1994-1996), for a total of 22 years.
By adding this exercise as a whole of Government, we conclude that 54 years of lack of determination have elapsed to correct the problem in a city with claims to be a large metropolis and that, of course, the responsibility is directly proportional to the years governed.
What happened? The answer is that the investment involved in solving the problem remains underground, not visible, and therefore cannot be highlighted as “so and so did that”. The last known figure—necessary for a functional stormwater system—goes back more than 30 years, when there was talk of 25 billion pesos, which at that time was around 4.1 billion dollars.
In current money we would have to be above 12 billion dollars, which at the current rate would be 640 billion pesos (almost half of the 2022 budget), a respectable task that becomes impossible for the Dominican State in the present circumstances. Something reasonably unthinkable.
And we are referring only to solving the problem in the main city of the country, since the same precariousness is suffered in all cities.
In other words, at least for residents of the metropolitan area (the National District and part of the Santo Domingo province), we can be sure that situations like the one suffered on November 4, 2022 have no foreseeable solution. However, looking for culprits for something that we should have solved many years ago is absolutely meaningless, because, ultimately, what is required is a solution for which we do not have the means.
We already know that in the next weather warnings about rain we must put ourselves to safety.
