Santo Domingo.- President Luis Abinader clarifies that it was not a lack of maintenance but a design and construction failure that was the origin of the collapse in the tunnel on 27 de Febrero Avenue with Máximo Gómez. Given this situation, he reported on creating a commission to supervise national infrastructure in the face of climate change, which will be chaired by geologist Osiris de León and whose purpose is to evaluate, with the most excellent transparency in 6 months, all infrastructures and their risks. “I want this commission to bring tranquility and peace to the Dominican population,” the president concluded. The Minister of Public Works, Deligne Ascensión, and the geologist Osiris de León corroborate this information.
Ascensión emphasized that these infrastructures are routinely maintained, and every ten days, their closure is announced for such purposes. In addition, he highlighted that even in the slabs that failed, the drains were working. Meanwhile, Osiris de León added that “the problem began in 1999. All of us who have evaluated this agree, both those of us who participated in the commission in 1999 and now, that the design had original flaws” since the hydrostatic pressure that could be generated when it rained heavily was not taken into account. “It has nothing to do with maintenance; the proof is that the first failure occurred seven months after the overpass was inaugurated when it was still new,” concluded De León.
In this sense, the president stated that if the issue had been debated more, action would have been taken in time, but “there were 23 years in which no action was taken, and I am responsible for 3 of those 23.” Likewise, the head of state reported on the proposal to create a special fund for the prevention, mitigation, and adaptation to climate change, in which both the Dominican Republic and international funds would contribute economic resources for these purposes.
This, after reporting that, although they continue to identify all the damages, climate change and these unprecedented events are costing the Dominican Republic very expensive, and remembering that the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) indicates that our countries are going to be impacted with investments of 2% of GDP, to face this problem, which, in the case of our country, would amount to about 124,000 million pesos.
“The country has to be aware that this climate change is a reality with unforeseen, intense and out-of-season phenomena.” Accumulated rainfall in the DN in 48 hours The consequences of these atmospheric phenomena were also evident this weekend in the Dominican territory, where only in the National District, the accumulated rainfall from November 16 to 18, associated with the tropical disturbance and trough, reached up to 450 millimeters in so far. Only 24 hours. Meanwhile, when adding the accumulated rain from Saturday the 18th and Sunday the 19th, Arroyo Hondo registered 459.2 mm, followed by Manganagua with 444.3 mm and Real Urbanization with 363.8 mm. In Jardines del Norte, 354.3 mm was recorded; Mirador Norte with 353.4; Fernández Urbanization with 349.5; Las Malvinas, in Santo Domingo Norte, with 320.9; South Gardens with 284.5; Bella Vista with 261.3; San Gerónimo with 257.6 and Mirador Sur with 254.1.
Restoration of essential services In just 48 hours after the events occurred, the electricity distribution companies almost completely restored service to affected users, reported President Abinader. Edesur reached 99.8%, Edenorte 99.4%, and Edeeste 96.07%. Regarding the water system, 117 of 253 aqueducts are out of service for prevention and will be operational in a week as the floods recede. Regarding this aspect, the head of state added that it is in the current administration that more ravines have been cleaned in the metropolitan areas of Santo Domingo and Santiago. In Santo Domingo alone, 42 km of canyons have been worked.
