The Government will invest 500 million pesos in the reconstruction of 9.6 kilometers of the two highways and the internal accesses of the landfill of Duchess.
In addition, it will deliver 15 million pesos per month, until December of this year, to improve the operation of the dump, while a definitive solution is sought to the problem of the final disposal of waste in the Santo Domingo province and the National District.
The announcements were made during an act in which the ministers of Public Works, Delign Ascension; Environment, Miguel Ceara Hatton; the president of the Dominican Municipal League, Víctor D’Aza, as well as the mayors Carlos GuzmanJosé Andújar and Carolina Mejía.
The officials were able to verify the seriousness of the highway Los Casabes, which due to the rains of the last few hours, have turned it into a quagmire through which only tall vehicles can enter. Amid the mud, flies and bad smells, the officials and mayors spoke of a definitive solution to the problem.
The works will be carried out by the José Lagares company, which was the winner of a bidding process by the Ministry of Public Works. the minister of Public Works, Delign Ascension reported that few projects are as important as Duchess in Greater Santo Domingo because the solid waste of the entire demarcation is deposited instead.
He said that the work that will be done will improve the quality of life of the residents in the surroundings of Duchess because the streets of the sectors will be intervened, as requested by the president of the Neighborhood Board Gaspar González.
He guaranteed that the work will not stop because the resources will be available so that in five or six months President Luis Abinader will inaugurate the final solution for access to the landfill.
“I do not understand why we have taken so long to find that solution when the investment, while still being important, is minimal in relation to other projects that have been done that do not have the dimension or impact of this one that is going to be done …I was talking with the contractor, they have to put a special emphasis on the drainage issue because the problem in this whole area is that it is a kind of pan and when it rains the ground saturates quickly, here we have to work on a drainage system vertical drainage,” the official said.
For his part, the Minister for the Environment, Miguel Ceara Hattonsaid that more than 25 million tons of solid waste are in Duchess in about 100 hectares at a rate of 4,500 tons per day He indicated that to maintain the current operations of the dump, 34 million pesos per month are required and only 12 million are collected.
“For those reasons, the Ministry of Environment will transfer, from its own resources, to the commission 15 million pesos per month until December of this year and the commission must render a detailed account of the use of those resources”.
He indicated that they will continue to work with the support of technical or reimbursable assistance from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and JICA during the period July-December 2022 for an amount of one million dollars.
For his part, the mayor of Santo Domingo Norte, Carlos Guzmanthanked the support of Ministry of environment and the Ministry of Public Worksas well as mayors and municipal officials.
He indicated that with these resources the operations in the open-air dump will be more efficient, avoiding inconveniences that hinder the work of dumping the waste.
“We appreciate the disposition that the new Minister of the Environment has had Miguel Ceara Hattonin contributing to the proper functioning of the largest landfill in the country”, and said that one of his priorities as mayor is to maintain health and cleanliness within the municipality.
