Background
The Ozama River in the Dominican Republic flows 148 km and bisects the capital Santo Domingo before emptying into the Caribbean Sea. The Isabela River is one of the main tributaries of the Ozama River. Ozama's basin is the fourth largest in the Dominican Republic, with a combined area of 2,706 km2 (1,045 sq mi).
The Ozama River, and its Isabela tributary is one of the most polluted rivers in the Dominican Republic, due to numerous industries and a lot of homes being located on its banks. Annually the Ozama River receives around 90,000 tonnes of MSW. Due to this entire Ozama Basin is heavily contaminated by untreated industrial runoff and raw sewage, drastically affecting local wildlife and local quality of life/health.[1]
Coalición Río
Coalición Río is a working group of public and private sector stakeholders which aims to restore the Ozama and Isabela rivers and contribute to sustainable development in the Dominican Republic.
Objectives of Coalición Río:
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Create synergies between different public and private stakeholders and communities to promote the recovery of the Ozama and Isabela rivers.
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Identify best practices and raise public awareness to ensure the sustainability of the interventions
WHAT WFO WILL DO
In collaboration with other private and public partners, WFO the Americas aims to restore the Ozama and Isabela rivers and develop treatment systems for industrial water so that locals can enjoy its beauty again.
This will include providing technical assistance and education to improve the capacity of communities to collect, recycle and reuse material, and the development of a "master plan" to identify best practices and opportunities to implement a more circular economy.
Meeting of Coalición Río stakeholders (March 2017)
In summer 2020, crews from the Mayor’s Office of the National District, the Ministries of Public Works and Defense removed more than 5,000 tonnes of marine litter. The waste had been piling up on the Ozama River floating bridge and in the Southern coast of the Caribbean Sea, since Tropical Storm Laura.
Most of the waste is accumulating at the floating bridge where the dredging department of the Navy works together with the Mayor’s Office, in order to remove decomposed litter damming on the barges that form the bridge.
PROJECT STATUS: ONGOING
[1] http://www.diccionariomedioambiente.org/DiccionarioMedioAmbiente_en/en/cpo_contaminacion_bis.asp
[2] Background image - Panoramio 2013, Credits: Aristides Moran