The Vice Minister of Forestry Resources of the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources (MMARN), José Elías González, headed the sixth reforestation day organized by the Propagas Foundation, the Santo Domingo Water Fund and the Alliance for the Recovery of the Higüero Micro-basin, to optimize water quality and improve environmental and social conditions in the communities of La Cuaba and El Limón, in Pedro Brand.
Around 100 collaborators from the three entities planted 2,000 cocoa seedlings and a selection of endemic and native plants in the vicinity of the Higüero River, one of the tributaries of the Ozama and Isabela basin and an important part of the drinking water supply system that supplies Greater Santo Domingo.
The opening ceremony of the planting day was presided over by María Paula Miquel, administrative director of the Propagas Foundation, who represented the president of this entity, Rosa Margarita Bonetti.
Also in attendance on behalf of the Santo Domingo Water Fund were its president, Roberto Herrera, and Patricia Abreu, executive director; Francisco Núñez, director of The Nature Conservancy; Carlos Montaño, mayor of La Cuaba, and Fabio Correa, president of the Microcuenca Committee, as well as executives from the Fundación Popular, Banco BHD and the NTD Foundation.
González valued the ecological restoration effort being carried out in the Higüero micro-watershed and emphasized that, if this model is emulated in each community, the country will be able to successfully restore all its forest systems.
“Because it is not only about achieving the goals, but that people assume sustainability as a culture”, a conquest that, in his opinion, is clearly perceived in this project and that should be extrapolated to all the points of the national geography.
Vice Minister Gonzalez recalled that “without the stability of natural resources our nation does not prosper”, so he urged the population to join the National Plan for Reforestation and Restoration of Forest Systems.
María Paula Miquel, administrative director of Fundación Propagas, referred to the origins of the Alianza por la Recuperación de la Microcuenca del Higüero, which groups six institutions of the country concerned about the contamination of water resources.
“Six years ago this alliance began through a collaboration agreement and a common goal: the recovery of the Higüero micro-watershed, which aims at the integral development of the La Cuaba and El Limón communities and the promotion of a sustainable community model,” he explained.
He assured that the results of the joint work are reflected in improved water quality in each of the points that have been intervened, as well as in the planting of more than 92,928 seedlings, since 2019.
Miquel announced that this year, the alliance will start the construction of the first artificial wetland in La Cuaba, for the treatment of wastewater with high organic matter content from some 30 families that discharge their water directly into the river.
Source: presidencia.gov.do
