He National Drinking Water Institute and Sewers (Inapa) is responsible for, as its name says, carrying clean water to the houses of the Dominicans.
and for him 2026the institution run by the lawyer Wellington Arnaud has a challenge ahead: improving the tourist and coastal areas of the country.
“We are planning for next year and we have already started the most ambitious sanitation project ever carried out in the Dominican Republic, which is the universal sanitation of tourist and coastal areas. Behold 140 kilometers of coast from Boca ChicaSan Pedro, La Romana, Higüey, Bávaro and Punta Cana,” he said Arnaud in Free Dialogue.
The official indicated that the work will have a relevant investment that will benefit more than a million of people.
“(It will have) an investment that is around 1 billion dollars and is going to impact more than a million of people. So today the president has not cared that those pipes go underground, that as you say, that cannot be boasted about and he has put the people’s health as a priority,” he added Arnaud.
Investment in drainage issues has been timid in the different governments because they are not immediately visible works, but they solve neuralgic problems in the cities.
Improve storage
Arnaudwho has been in office for just over five years, understands that a vital need that the country has is to improve storage capacity of water to be able to distribute it to citizens.
“We need to have more prey. We are in a privileged geographical position. Where do we receive from? 1,500 millimeters of water overall. That is, you can receive 2,500 millimeters per year in Puerto Plata and 500 in Pedernales, but when you do the sum it is 1,500 per territory, that is 25,000 million millimeters of water per year. So we need to have a increased storage.
And how to make that happen?
“Need plan multiple aqueducts that they may be interprovincialthat we can be able to store more water, modernize agriculture even more,” he added.
- According to Arnaudthe country has five million tasks of land they are organized planting.
“Of this, 30% is planted with rice. We can’t live without rice, right? I mean, that’s the first thing. But we have to consume, let’s say, irrigate 1,250 gallons of water to produce a pound of rice. We have to modernize, look for sprinkler irrigation, the drip irrigation“, he stated.
But does agriculture have to improve the use of the resource, or not?
“Great work is being done by Agriculture, but for me the fundamental challenges facing the future in terms of water, one, increased storage“Two, modernize and be much more efficient with the issue of irrigation in the Dominican Republic, continue the work that is being done to put the canals in place so that they are not canals on land and that they can be converted to canals once they are lined.”
“They are one of the things that we have to do and not least the awareness that water is a finite resource, not infinite, that we have to take care of herthat water costs, that we turn off the tap, that there is awareness that this is a service that water institutions have the responsibility of treating, but this consumes energy, all the inputs are consumed to be able to make the water drinkable and that is another challenge,” indicated the director of the Inapa in conversations with Free Diary.
Arnaud assured that the San Cristóbal de Lavapiés treatment plant has been completed, “where it is a plant that has a large capacity, the networks still need to be completed so that it can be at 100%.”
Likewise, the treatment plant in the municipality of Las Matas de Farfán, the treatment plant in the municipality of Castillo, in the Duarte province, sewage and plant in the municipality of Villa Riva, also in the Duarte province.
“Likewise, we also put the treatment plant in the municipality of Pimentel into operation and made it completely new.
“The sanitary sewage of the municipality of Mao, in the Valverde province, and the sanitary sewage of the municipality of Licey al Medio in Santiago are being built right now.”
Wellington Arnaud is one of several candidates for the presidential candidacy for the year 2028, but unlike the other candidates, Arnaud already had a chance against the current president Luis Abinader, in 2016, when he was also a candidate.
Although he did not speak directly about his immediate aspirations, he focused on ensuring that the Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM) must remain in power beyond 2028.
“Our task and the great challenge is precisely to continue working with enthusiasm. That the Dominican population continues to value the PRM as the party that governs to improve the quality of life of the people. The political institution that has as a priority that every penny of the Dominican people is invested well. That is the way.”
Arnaud understands that working for the people is the main guarantee of staying in the government.
“For me, that is 90% of the guarantee of staying beyond 28. Because when people are at the top, they always expect more. And when people don’t feel satisfied, they tend to look back and we cannot allow this country to go backwards.”
He added: “We have to… and our generation has a great responsibility on our shoulders, not to promise, not to talk, but with actions to demonstrate the responsibility that we have to continue moving this country forward and that for me is the priority. Therefore, my work and what I am focused on is precisely working.”
He considered that the internal process must be clear and that this will give even more strength to the ruling party.
“That we have an internal process, a convention where everyone does their job and that it is as established by the statute and as ratified in our executive leadership, the guarantee of maintaining us beyond the 28th is that the leadership and the bases of the party vote for whoever they want to be their candidate, this initial process immediately passes,” he stated.
