Municipal Issues

Drinking Water

Service Quality:
-despite strong efforts and continued government support, quality and continuity are inadequate in the Dominican Republic
        -scarcity increasing because of excessive consumption in urban areas
        -  only about 10.5% of the population connected to the water system receive water on a continuous basis
       -many people living under the poverty line cannot afford to pay for water

Services	By System	By Service Population
Continuous	40%	10.5%
Inadequate	60%	89.9%

Drinking Water Quality:
-there are often poor conditions at the purification systems
       -38.4% of systems have no chlorination filter installed
       -a major effect is the high rates of Cholera throughout the country

Problems:
-government has been trying to improve the water systems but very expensive
-there is no specific government agency in charge or water or sanitation

Recommendations:
Suggestions
      -put in rain barrels to catch the rain and use as drinking water
      -work to create cleaner and safer purification systems in larger cities
      -truck water out to people living under the poverty line for lower price
      -use rain water for agriculture
-although my suggestions would be costly, it would save lives
      -because my suggestion is to only fix the purification systems in large cities it would save money
      -that money can be used to purchase water basins and truck water out to people
           -with these rain basins that water caught can be used for agriculture


Waste water Treatment:
-about 49% of waste water is collected and receives some kind of treatment
     -insufficient treatment
Major Projects:
- the Interamerican Development Bank is partnering with Hazen and Sawyer to create a sanitary sewage master plan for Santo Domingo
      -will treat waste water collection, treatment and disposal



Solid Waste Disposal:
-solid waste is not being disposed of properly
      -direct correlation between inadequate disposal of solid waste and sickness
-the waste is not being recycled or sorted
-being put into streams and landfills
       -not regulated at all
       -piling up and creating pollution for nearby neighborhoods and cities
-because clean water is such an issue, solid waste disposal is not the major concern

Major Projects:
-a 5 million dollar project is currently being worked on to put in a recycling center and to create a safe solid waste disposal center

Recommendation:
-to implement recycling to help reduce the amount of waste going into landfills and proceed to dispose of this waste properly separating any chemical products or toxic waste
-although my solution would be very costly it would benefit in the future and would reduce the amount of sickness from poor solid waste disposal



Air Pollution:
-MAJOR issue
-many companies came over and set up factories and disregarded environmental standards
     -Blacksmith Institute set up many factories in Bajos de Haina disregarding all environmental stands and now Bajos de Haina is considered in the top 10 most polluted places on Earth
            -many high levels of lead and other chemicals
            -extremely dangerous to live there, many health problems
-overall the air quality is very poor
      -in certain areas it is worse
Policies:
-to use more alternative energy
     -building wind turbines and installing solar panels
     -trying to make factories cleaner(coal brushes)

Water Pollution:
-water is not safe to drink in the Dominican Republic
-pollution is mainly from depletion of groundwater and unregulated solid waste disposal
      -poor purification systems make this pollution irreversible
-better purification systems are being put in place to improve quality of water

 

Analysis:
-I think the worst pollution problem facing the Dominican Republic is the poor quality and scarcity of drinking water. With purification systems lacking important steps in the purification process, such as chlorination, the water is not considered safe to drink. Even though the water is not considered safe, it is the only water being provided for the people, therefore they drink it and get sick. Being that there is a direct correlation between unsafe drinking water and illness I think this is the most important pollution problem facing the Dominican Republic.

Land/Water Use

Land/ Water Use:

Food
Access to clean water:
-90% of the country has clean water
      -there are still about 1,005,619 people without clean water
-areas that struggle to find clean water
      -people in villages struggle to find the amount of clean water to sustain their villages
      -towns on the boarder of Haiti are struggling to find the amounts of clean water to supply the people of the Dominican Republic and also the people who have come over from Haiti
               -especially after the earthquake many people came over to the Dominican Republic
-people by the coast and in large cities have an easier time finding clean water
-there are many chlorination systems being installed in small towns and villages for clean drinking water
       -in 2012 the American Development Bank(IDB) gave the Dominican Republic a $25 million loan to improve access to drinking water
-there have been many outbreaks of Cholera since 2010 reporting deaths of about 8,000 people
        -Cholera is caused by untreated sewage
        -the Dominican Republic is making strict rules on how waste is to be disposed of and where to help protect from cholera and ensure clean water

Access to nutrition:
-in 2006 about 30% of the country was suffering from malnutrition and undernourishment
-vitamin A and iron deficiencies are often the nutrition problems of people in the Dominican Republic
-poverty stricken areas tend to have lower nutrition levels
-many people in the lower class eat mostly fruits and vegetables grown locally that are cheap and have meat sometimes for dinner but not as a regular part of their meal
-many people in the upper class eat meat and seafood and have great nutrition levels
-about 7% of children under the age of 5 suffer from malnutrition
      -causes stunting in growth, underweight issues as well as anemia


A typical diet:
-a lower class person
       -for breakfast will have a piece of fruit
       -for lunch will have some more fried plantain, rice and beans
               -often times this rice is lacking in vitamin A
       -for dinner they will eat vegetables as well as more rice and occasionally some stewed meat for the whole family to share
-people in the lower class tend to eat a lot of rice because it is cheap to purchase in large quantities
-because bananas are so abundant on the island people not only eat them as a fruit but they fry them for plantains
-an upper class person
      -for breakfast will have fruit, eggs, toast
      -for lunch will have meat, rice and fruit
      -for dinner will have meat, seafood and vegetables
-the fruit and vegetables often come from local markets
-the seafood comes from the coast
      -often times people living along the coast will eat seafood as well

Farming Methods:
-the soil is rich, well drained and of volcanic origin
-the Dominican Republic is one of the leading exporters of organic products
      -they export mostly sugar, coffee, tobacco and cocoa
      -they also export many fresh fruit, vegetables and flowers

-30% of the land is suitable for crop production
-17% of the labor force is farming
-irrigated land: 2,590 sq km
      -this is the primary occupation
-farming is a growing occupation in the Dominican Republic will numbers growing a half percent in the past 2 years
-it is popular to grow fruit and vegetables to sell at local markets
       -because there is not fresh water to waste, people use rain barrels to catch the rain and store it to water their plants
-the climate in the Dominican Republic is very warm and sunny, therefore plants have to be able to handle the hot climate
-the key to growing is using trees to shade the plants
       -farmers can use banana trees as shade to protect other plants such as tomatoes from the sun
-the farmers use horses and cattle to manuevure the land rather than tractors
-because of the small plots of land farmers have for farming, they grow multiple crops in rows on the plot
-there is also beef cattle ranching and dairy farming


Fishing:
-fishing is underdeveloped in the Dominican Republic
      -even though the country is surrounded by water they import most of the fish that are eaten
-the fish living in the waters around the country include: Marlin, Barracuda, Tuna, Mackarel and Sailfish
-the fishermen do not have to technology(sonar, high-tech nets and boats, refrigerated boats) to catch large amounts of fish
-the Dominican Republic caught 17,490 tons of fish
      -China caught 11,500,600 tons of fish

Food Production:
-because of the hot conditions, it is difficult for plants to grow
-because of the sunny conditions, plants need a lot of shade
-because of the little rain, plants need to be adapted to being watered not very often
-with growing food, farmers often have to worry about bacteria and disease getting into the plants
      -typhoid fever can be caught by contact with food or water that is carrying the disease
-food production has been increasing
     -the food production indicator for the Dominican Republic is 116
     -the food production indicator covers food crops that are considered edible and contain nutrients
-food production drops around 1998 in the graph below because of the tragic hurricane season
     -Hurricane Georges in 1998 costed $1 billion in damage with some of the worst damage reported in history


Landscape:
-1,288 km of coastline
-land area: 48,380 sq km
-water area: 350 sq km
-irrigated land: 2,590 sq km
-terrain consists of rugged highlands, mountains and valleys
-Arable land: 30%
     -farming
     -nutrient rich soil
-Permanent crops: 9%
-Permanent pastures: 43%
     -lots of hills, mountains and meadows
     -very green grass with rich soil
     -partially used for grazing
-Forests and woodlands: 12%
-other: 6%
    -roads, cities, villages


Forests:
-there is 1,376,000 hectares of forests
-one of the biggest problems the Dominican Republic is facing is deforestation
-in 1995 about 25% of the land was forests
-in 2012 12% of the land is forests
-the timber cut if for land clearing and fuel
     -to build for new resorts,housing, and farming
-by cutting down the forests, many animals are forced to relocate
-there are many conservation initiatives to protect the remaining forests and help to rebuild more
     -use 200 hectares to protect wildlife
           -birds
           -insects
      -trying to set up regulations for how much forest can be cut
      -trying to set up regulations to conserve the timber cut


Communities:
-70% of people live in urban areas
-30% of people live in rural areas
-lots of small towns and villages
-some big cities
    -Santo Domingo

Transportation:
-other than walking or biking, cars and trucks are the main methods of transportation
-if a family cannot afford a car they will buy a scooter to fit as many members of the family on it as possible
-3 main trucking highways that connect the 3 largest cities in the country
     -DR-1: departs from Santo Domingo to Cibao
     -DR-2: departs from Santo Domingo to Sur
     -DR-3: departs from Santo Domingo to El Este
-there are 2 other alternative routes connecting the large cities
-the government has started construction of other highways that connect smaller towns to the 3 major trucking highway
-many of the roads and highways are unpaved and in need to maintenance
-for public transportation there are two main bus companies
-the government is constructing the first public Santo Domingo Metro and Santiago light rail system

National Parks:
-there are 12 national parks in the Dominican Republic
     -many of the national parks usually consist of either caves, animal species, mountains or pools
-there are 5 scientific reserves
-national parks used for recreation, beauty, sightseeing and conservation
     -conserve the land and protect wildlife, protect plants
-for conserving land there are many policies to set regulations on the amount of land used for timber, building and agriculture
    -ways to conserve is to make land a national park


Mining:
-accounts for 2.5% of the countries GDP
-nickel is the biggest material mined
-the next two materials mined are gold and silver
-still a lot of gold in the country because did not become popular to mine until the 1980's
-other materials mined such as iron, limestone and copper
-in 2011 there was 14,103 annual-thousand barrels of crude oil and other fuel products