La Zurza: The Largest Water Treatment Plant in Santo Domingo

According to the Diagnostic Report and Basic Studies of the Santo Domingo Sanitary Sewerage Master Plan, Santo Domingo currently produces a sewage flow of 6,200 liters per second, of which 20 percent, 1,300, are discharged between the rivers Ozama, Isabela, Haina and the Caribbean Sea while 4,900 are discharged into the aquifers because the sanitary sewer system barely covers 17 percent of the city.

In this study, it was also detected that 30 percent of the pipes that make up this system must be repaired and / or replaced given their advanced deterioration that allows leaks that can penetrate the damaged aqueduct pipes and contaminate drinking water.

The effects of both the discharges in the aquifers and the leaks in the networks are not palpable or visible like the stench and floating garbage at the mouth of the rivers and the marine coastline and perhaps for this reason they have not deserved greater attention from the governments And the media.

However, they are more serious for public health since around 36 million gallons of water are extracted daily from these aquifers for population consumption through a network of sector wells operated by the Santo Domingo Aqueduct and Sewer Corporation (CAASD). and more than 1,200 wells operated by individuals.

For these reasons and others of a technical-economic nature, the Master Plan established the need to immediately start the rehabilitation of existing systems as a precondition for the construction of new plants and installation of new networks. However, this cardinal recommendation was not considered in the direction of CAASD or in the Presidency of the Republic.

Instead, it was decided to build a plant for the treatment of wastewater in the neighborhoods that make up the "La Zurza" sanitary basin, and in order to justify this costly and untimely investment, the project was sold as the share. key for the rescue of the Ozama River and sanitary sanitation of the neighborhoods of that sector.

It happens that the plant will not save the river or clean up the neighborhoods.

As for the alleged rescue of the Ozama, the pollution by sewage that these neighborhoods cause is currently relatively low because its populations today only discharge into it, about 200 lits / sec. being the flow of the same at that point 50,000 lits / sec.

The truth is that the contamination of the river occurs throughout its entire route due to these causes: 1. The discharge into its channel of garbage generated by more than 100,000 people who live on its banks and those of its tributaries.

2. The direct dumping of organic waste from 16 slaughterhouses located in its vicinity.

3. Downloads from other sectors distributed at different points along its route.

4. The deposit in its bed of hundreds of tons per year of contaminated sediments as a result of erosion and poor management of the basin in its upper and middle levels.

Regarding the sanitary sanitation of the neighborhoods, it should be noted that the incidence of this installation is minimal and that the main and priority was the remodeling and expansion of its already deteriorated and insufficient sewer networks to be able to collect and transport the water to its place of treatment. black produced, and this implies the replacement of 28 kilometers of pipes and the installation of 311 kilometers of new lines.

The reality is that the population that inhabits that basin is 700,000 people who produce about 1,800 liters / sec. of such waters, but only 54,000 have sanitary sewers and that part of the population does not generate more than 200 liters / sec.

In other words, that plant designed and built to treat 1,200 lits / sec, for many years will be receiving only about 200.

By virtue of this reality, the Master Plan programmed the construction of this facility in two stages: the first to enter service in 2030 with a capacity of 1,200 lits / sec and the second in 2040 to complete a capacity of 2,700 lits / sec. This, in accordance with the projected population growth and the supposed progress of the remodeling and expansion works of the networks that would discharge into it.

Starting from all this, we come to a bitter reflection: The violation of the execution schedule of the Master Plan could be said to have been due to a technical planning error, but the decision to build a treatment plant of 1200 lits / sec to receive about 200 during 10 or more years, it already assumes the category of a mega fraud to lubricate a large business.

The author is a hydraulic engineer.

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