Spanish
Santo Domingo.- More than 647,000 users are without potable water in the Dominican Republic after the rains caused by the tropical storm Melissa affected dozens of aqueducts, according to data provided this Thursday by official authorities.
The rains affected 51 aqueducts, of which 48 are completely out of service, according to the National Institute of Potable Water and Sewers (Inapa) announced by the Emergency Operations Center (COE).
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The rainfall associated with the Melissa storm has also caused electrical failures in several parts of the country, as well as flooding in various areas, while showers are expected to continue for the next few hours. "The projections we have are for a lot of rainfall this afternoon, tomorrow and probably until Saturday", so "the population should not let their guard down", said the director of the COE, Juan Manuel Méndez, in a press conference. Due to the situation, that organization keeps 25 of the country's 32 provinces on alert, nine of them on maximum alert, including the capital. In the areas under maximum alert, the Government suspended teaching and work on Wednesday and Thursday as preventive measures. The U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) reported on Thursday that the strengthening of Tropical Storm Melissa, which would become a major hurricane over the weekend, will cause rain in Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Jamaica, as well as being of interest to Cuba. The phenomenon, which emerged on Tuesday, was in the NHC's latest report 345 kilometers southeast of Kingston, Jamaica, and 440 kilometers southwest of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. For now, it presents maximum sustained winds of 85 kilometers per hour with a displacement to the northwest at 7 kilometers per hour. Therefore, the report noted, "it is likely to move slowly and remain in the vicinity of Haiti, Jamaica and eastern Cuba for several days."
