For 26 years the isabella river receives the constant and increasing discharge of leachate or liquid waste from the landfill of Duchess where the waters that “wash” tons of garbage infiltrate and run in a path of just over two kilometers, contaminating everything they touch with life, such as human, animal and plant life, until they mix with that tributary of the Ozama.
Since the liquids come out of the mountains, some up to 40 meters high, the entire area begins to flood. This is the case of the southwestern part, the town known as La Duchess. Also, to the east of the Jacagua area and to a lesser extent, the north side. In all the surroundings of the garbage dump, of approximately one million square meters, you can see the strained liquids that come out of the Solid waste.
For years sewage waste, such as fecal matter, urine and others, produced in Greater Santo Domingo and other places, has been carried in tanker trucks that unload it into gutters that run towards the lower part, precisely towards the area of the isabella river.
In the inhospitable place, where the ravine and the Isabela converge, the panorama is gloomy: a river with no surface current, brown, smelly and with constant bubbles, a sign of a natural resource that languishes… From time to time, something jumps out of the almost static waters: perhaps a toad or a fish dying from the toxicity of the place.
The current of liquids with brown stains is not only observed towards the Isabela, in the southern part of the dump, but in the surroundings of the more than one hundred hectares, lagoons have formed that, when it rains a lot, overflow and drag towards the lower part all contaminants.
Raymond Martínez, expert in contaminationespecially in sanitary and environmental engineering with studies in Spain, Japan, Puerto Rico and Russia, affirms that leachates are liquid or aqueous waste with high levels of organic components such as nitrogen, phosphorus, oxygen, potassium and other types such as those derived from waste hospitals, which filter through solid matter.
“In terms of contamination, is measured in DBO5, it is the content of the organic component that the water has, for example, the residual water of a house has an organic content of 180 to 200 milligrams per liter of DB05. A leachate 10,000 milligrams per liter is up to 80 times higher than the contamination that generates residual water”, he explains.
It ensures that any contaminant from a controlled or uncontrolled landfill generates a negative impact on nature, on humans and animals. However, he says he is not aware of any place in the country that has a leachate treatment plant.
“What we have always said, all the technicians who know a little about this, is that Duchess is causing a very serious impact and not just in the isabella riverIt also affects animals, people and Duchess It’s very close to an airport.”
a bad old man
Faced with this reality that has been maintained for years, Jhon Grullón, administrator of the landfill and director of the Department of Solid waste of the Ministry of the Environment, informs that the Duchess leachates They will be given the appropriate treatment.
There are about Duchess two lagoons where part of the leachate accumulates, in the southern and eastern part, as an urgent measure, while working on a definitive solution. Grullón informs that, in both cases, the liquids will be sucked to be poured into the La Zurza Treatment Plant that was built by the last government.
Explain that, in the administration of Duchess, technicians from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) work on the design of a leachate treatment plant with all the required standards and for this, in the southern and eastern parts , ponds will be built to prevent the flow of leachate. “We are going to mitigate this environmental damage in two ways: one, what are the wastewater that reaches us, that we receive. We already agreed with the CAASD, they are going to receive them at the La Zurza treatment plant, they are already preparing, we agreed, and we are working on that issue.” The other measure is the construction of a treatment plant.
For this there was already a meeting between the Minister of the Environment, Miguel Ceara Hatton and the director of the Santo Domingo Aqueduct and Sewerage Corporation (CAASD), Felipe Suberví, and together with the technicians agreed to start the work in February.
The Master Plan of Duchess
This project, financed by the IDB and JICA for an amount of US$110,000,000, contemplates the general intervention of Duchess which includes from the treatment of the final deposit of the Solid wastethe leachates, the organization of the “divers” and even the social work with the residents in the surroundings of the dump.
This, apart from the 500 million pesos that the Government invests through the Ministry of Public Works for the reconstruction of the Los Casabes and La Isabela highways, in addition to the internal roads of the dump.
Grullón assures that the plan has already started and the proof is that Duchess the fires, the bad smells and the flies that existed all over the place have disappeared. Today Duchess it is a mountain of garbage covered by several layers of earth in order to build a large park there in the future.
The Environment, to maintain the operation of the landfill, has contributed RD$15,000,000 per month since last year, which, together with the contributions of several municipalities, allow the landfill to be sustained until its final closure as recommended by the IDB and JICA.
“That is possible with resources, if there are no resources, all the achievements we have so far could go backwards,” says Grullón.
The useful life of the dump is 8 or 10 years if the recommendation of the technicians is applied that all the space corresponding to the waste deposit have a level of 60 meters, which is currently the highest level.
Without resources there is no operational sustainability in landfill Duchess
The management of Solid wastethe construction of internal roads with granzote and rough, the rental of equipment, the purchase of fuels and others, are current expenses in which the administration of Duchess to maintain its operability, but the income is limited, despite the efforts made by Propeep, Public Works and some of the Mayor’s Offices that pay for their service. So far the income is as follows: The National District Mayor’s Office pays RD$7,000,000 every month; the private sector RD$752,916; Santo Domingo West RD$500,000; Los Alcarrizos RD$160,000; Pantoja RD$55,000; Santo Domingo Este does not pay, nor Santo Domingo Norte. The Ministry of the Environment contributes RD$15,000,000 every month.
