Among the vulnerabilities of Dominican Republic to the effects of climate change, one of those that has the greatest impact on the population are the flooding in urban areasGiven the high concentration of population that lives in the main cities of the country, and to prevent these disasters, it is necessary to take measures in various areas of the public and private sectors, and the government is working in that direction.
This was stated by the Executive Vice President of the National Council for Climate Change and Clean Development MechanismMax Puig, when participating in the panel on the Political and Institutional Framework for Resilience against Floods, an event organized by the Embassy of the Dominican Republic in the United Kingdomthe University of Wolverhampton, the Ibeoamerican University (Unibe), and the Propagas Foundation, together with the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources; and the National Council for Climate Change and Clean Development Mechanism.
During the activity, Puig explained that in order to prevent urban flooding such as those registered on November 4, it is not only necessary to improve and maintain the storm drainage systems in the streets and avenues of Greater Santo Domingo, but also to improve the observation capacity meteorology in the country, integrate and systematize the data provided by hydrometeorological stations and radars, and generate a more effective early warning system
“Citizens need to be aware of the advent of hurricanes, storms, troughs, and other extreme events that put people’s lives at risk and affect public and private property well in advance, and for that we are already implementing some of the actions They are necessary,” he said.
In this sense, he recalled that a few days ago the implementation of the project “Generation and management of hydrometeorological data and scenarios of climate change in the Dominican Republic”, the results of which provide a clear vision of where to invest and how to invest in improving capacities for this sector.
“Also, now that the program Euro Climate is in the country, we are working to access the space observation data provided by the European Space Agency, we are developing the Climate Risk Atlas and other initiatives that help the country have solid, integrated and timely data on hydrometeorological phenomena that affect us,” said Puig.
The panel on the Political and Institutional Framework for Resilience against Floods was moderated by the architect and professor Erick Dorrejo and included the participation of the Vice Minister of Environmental Management of the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, Indhira de Jesús, who highlighted that since that institution are deploying actions to improve the arborization of urban areas to ensure the natural drainage of the Rainwater.
For his part, the Urban Planner Marcos Barinas stressed the need to urgently undertake the expansion and modernization of the storm drainage system of the Dominican capital, recalling that the system he has corresponds to technologies from more than 60 years ago. years and does not cover most of the capital’s territory.