Santo Domingo.– Among piles of garbage, mosquitoes, bad odors and contaminated waters, the lives of hundreds of families inhabiting in the Isabela River Riberain the National District. There, children play near gray puddles and the aging breathe a saturated air of waste.
“There are many sick children here for that; Even the old are sick. Here is everything. What attacks the most are the little ones”, Says Juan Sánchez, a community who sees impotence how his neighborhood becomes a focus of diseases.
Although garbage trucks pass several times a day, the accumulation of waste exceeds any effort. The bags are piled up in the corners and end up dragged by the river, which is no longer a resource but an outdoor landfill.
Darío Jiménez remembers that Clean and Desierbes were organized before, but those days were forgotten. “When it rains, everything gets ugly with mud. The river overflows and garbage returns to our homes”, He says.
A few meters from the channel still sprout natural surfaces, clear waters that in another context would be an attraction. Children and adults use them to cool off, but between debris and waste the landscape has deteriorated. “Those surzas are how little the neighborhood has. The children enjoy there. Once we had to make a channel for water to flow and not overflow, because the whole neighborhood filled”, Says another dweller.
Garbage pollution is more than an aesthetic problem: it is the accumulation of solid waste in water, air and soil that degrades ecosystems and sick to communities. Between pests, bad odors and health risks, life on the riverbank of Isabela is a daily struggle to breathe and survive.
Come hope in Decree 531-25
This week, President Abinader issued Decree 531-25 that declares of “high priority” the physical, urban and environmental regeneration of the Ozama and Isabela rivers, affected by pollution, disorderly urbanization and settlements in high-risk areas.
The intervention will include sectors of Santo Domingo East as oxygen, the island, Rivera del Ozama, Las Lilas and sings the frog; from Santo Domingo Norte such as Las Malvinas and the new boat; and of the National District, including Capotillo, La Zurza, Galey and Nuevo Domingo Savio.
