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Through a statement, the provincial president of Fuerza del Pueblo in Santiago and member of the Political Directorate, Demóstenes Martínez, expressed his deep concern about the prolonged interruption of service, noting that the main cause is the breakdown of a major pipeline of the Cibao Central aqueduct, located in the vicinity of Sabana Iglesia, an infrastructure with more than 30 years of age whose deterioration had been warned on repeated occasions.
Martínez maintained that the system's collapse is a direct consequence of the neglect and lack of preventive maintenance by the Santiago Aqueduct and Sewerage Corporation (CORAASAN) and the National Institute of Potable Water and Sewers (INAPA), despite prior technical and community alerts. "Thousands of families have been without being able to cover basic needs for days. Access to drinking water is a fundamental right that admits no excuses," he affirmed. You can also read:https://deultimominuto.net/nacionales/jce-intima-a-fuerza-del-pueblo/ In that same vein, engineer Hamlet Otañez, an expert in Drinking Water and Sanitation from Fuerza del Pueblo and also a member of the Political Directorate, described the situation as an urban and health crisis, emphasizing that it is not a simple technical inconvenience. "More than 800,000 people without water for several days means hospitals, clinics, businesses, schools and homes functioning precariously, depending on improvised solutions to guarantee hygiene, cleaning and infection control," he warned. Otañez highlighted the seriousness of the event due to the timing, noting that Christmas is a period of high demand for services and intense family and commercial activity. "Santiago cannot operate blindly without water. This affects the dignity of the people and paralyzes the normal life of the city," he said.Both leaders agreed that community representatives had reported leaks and the deterioration of the affected section for months, without the authorities acting in time. "When the population alerts and the authority decides to postpone, the result is this: entire cities paying the price of inaction," said Otáñez, who recalled that a leak in a supply line is a critical signal that demands immediate intervention, not waiting.
The Fuerza del Pueblo called on the authorities to provide clear, transparent, and responsible explanations, as well as to implement urgent palliative measures to guarantee the water supply to hospitals, educational centers, and vulnerable sectors, while a definitive structural solution is implemented. You may be interested in:https://deultimominuto.net/nacionales/raymundo-ramirez-se-juramenta/ Martínez and Otañez warned that this episode adds to other recent events that show a pattern of negligence in the management of the country's hydraulic infrastructure, reiterating that without water there is no public health, no normality and no dignity, and that the Dominican people cannot continue to pay the consequences of abandonment and lack of planning.
