DUARTE, SAN FRANCISCO DE MACORÍS.- Agricultural producers, business owners and residents of the Naranjo Dulce community joined together to use their own resources to repair the roads on the San Francisco de Macorís, Naranjo Dulce, Río San Juan Tourist Highway.
With trucks, tractors, shovels, mechanical shovels and other equipment and machinery provided and rented by the community, agricultural producers and businessmen from the Naranjo Dulce area are carrying out the repair of the main road, even though the work has been approved, but has remained paralyzed for eight months, which makes it impossible for them to take the production to the city.
Cesar Taveras, a local producer, stated, “The farmers in the area decided to repair the roads using our own resources, with the help of Alex Peralta and his ecotourism project Cunae, which provided some equipment, because the road is impassable. We don't want to burn tires or throw rocks, nor do we want to paralyze productivity, so we hope for a helping hand to keep the route passable,” said the renowned agricultural and livestock producer.
“Here there are men and women who have lost their agricultural production, there are substantial investment projects, many people who live in the area, who have good products, but they cannot travel this road with peace of mind,” Taveras said.
Meanwhile, the business owners stated: “We have joined forces to improve the Naranjo Dulce-Río Boba highway. We don't want riots or strikes, much less to paralyze traffic on this stretch,” said businessman Alex Peralta. “That's why we are working.”.
“The humble people of this area have had to emigrate; they cannot work the land because there is no way to get the crops out. This used to be the prime coffee-growing area, a mountainous region half an hour from the coast, but it doesn't have a road to facilitate access. There are hotels and ecotourism areas here that users have no way of reaching when it rains,” said Mario Fernández, Yiye, a former legislator.
The project began in 1976, known as the La Explanación road, Naranjo Dulce Rio San Juan, and comprises about 60 kilometers from the community of Naranjo Dulce to Rio San Juan, passing through the Boba River.
President Luis Abinader pledged in February of this year to allocate the necessary budget to resume work in 2025, which had restarted last year, but at the moment the project is paralyzed, despite the fact that work was progressing rapidly in September and October of last year.
Initially, the government reported that the stoppage was due to permit issues that the Ministry of Environment had to grant for the extraction of material, since the Loma Quita Espuela Scientific Reserve is located near the area, although environmentalists in the area have stressed that the construction of the road will not directly affect the buffer zone of the reserve.
While a decision is being made, as a way of not taking to the streets, the residents of the community continue to invest their resources to be able to move around with some decency, not only facilitating access to transport products, but also the movement of sick people or in case of an emergency, a press release highlights.
