According to the Environmental Prosecutor's Office, the area where the Altos Ríos Housing Project is currently being built is part of the Santo Domingo Green Belt Well Field, so the aforementioned intervention causes an alteration to the environmental balance of the metropolitan area and its surrounding territories.
SANTODOMINGO.- The Specialized Prosecutor's Office for the Defense of the Environment and Natural Resources (Proedemaren) accuses the company 481 Constructora, SRL of having cut down and eliminated hundreds of trees of various species in an area of approximately 153,000 square meters.
According to the Environmental Prosecutor's Office, the area where the Altos Ríos Housing Project is currently being built is part of the Santo Domingo Green Belt Well Field, so the aforementioned intervention causes an alteration to the environmental balance of the metropolitan area and its surrounding territories.
The accusation was presented before the Santo Domingo East Court of Instruction by the Proedemaren prosecutors, who state that the deforestation took place in the Ferregú sector, located on the Santo Domingo-La Victoria highway,
The entity seeks to initiate legal proceedings against the company, as well as against its owners Luis Miguel Arenas and Cesarina Leonor de las Mercedes Rivera Mata de Montás.
“The accused cut down and eliminated hundreds of trees of different species, in an area of approximately 153,000 square meters, in the Ferregú sector, located on the Santo Domingo-La Victoria highway,” states a press release from Proedemaren.
Among the species felled are javilla, samán, royal palm, mango, poppy, gina, jagua, Cuban piñón, memiso, almond and campeche.
The Public Prosecutor's Office described this action as a violation of the General Law on Environment and Natural Resources (64/2000) and the Sectoral Forestry Law of the Dominican Republic (57-18)
The direct negative impact encompasses two of the five wells that are protected in the area of the Green Belt of Santo Domingo, located in Environmental Zone F, which are the ones that register the highest levels of humidity and which also contribute to the headwaters of the tributary streams of the La Yuca River.
The destruction of this area affects the quality of the water currently extracted in Greater Santo Domingo for human use and consumption, in addition to eliminating the sponge effect that existed in the area, which helps to mitigate river flooding in the surrounding areas.
This indiscriminate action has also eliminated a typical and representative ecosystem of the natural rainforest and displaced the species that lived there, explained the head of Proedemaren, the court attorney Francisco Contreras.
Among the species harmed by this action against the national environment are the palmchat, Canary Island sparrow, blackbird, woodpecker, dove, bull's-headed macaw, and green lizard.
The area, selected by the Santo Domingo Water and Sewerage Corporation (CAASD) as a water well field to supply the Dominican capital, was completely cleared, leaving only the wooded patch of what it once was and where many of the felled trees are still piled up.
The investigation was carried out by prosecutors José Espinal Beato and Porfirio Estévez Mejía, accompanied by the technician from the Provincial Directorate of Santo Domingo East of the Ministry of Environment, Jesús Diffó, and a team from the Academy of Sciences of the Dominican Republic, headed by Eleuterio Martínez Alcántara.
About Construction Company 481
On its Facebook page, the company describes itself as a construction firm specializing in selling land within real estate developments. The company has a one-minute, six-second video of the Alto Rios housing project and a post inviting people to purchase a lot within the development.
