Free Flow

[

] 134

Water and development: a history of

cooperation in the Dominican Republic

Fernando Rivera Colinton, Researcher, Centre for the Sustainable Management

of Water Resources in the Caribbean Island States, National Water Research Institute (INDRHI)

ater cooperation and conflict over water use must have

begun in the Dominican Republic (DR) with the arrival

of the Spanish conquerors in the fifteenth century.

However, the development of modern water exploitation and coop-

eration began in the late nineteenth century when one Spanish

man, Juan Caballero, initiated the construction of an irrigation

channel in the south. At the beginning of the twentieth century Luis

L. Bogaert, of French origin, built the first channel with technical

criteria in the north-west region. In 1917 an American company

began the construction of an irrigation system in the south, which

later became the first irrigation district in DR. Before this point, the

private sector had been the main constructor of infrastructure for

water use. In 1924 the state began to develop its water sector, and

most of the country’s channels and dams were built using internal

financial resources between then and the late 1970s.

Cooperation programmes

During the 1980s DR, like most Latin American and Caribbean coun-

tries, experienced economic constraint. The irrigation system was

inefficient, with low crop productivity and deterioration of the infra-

structure due to neglected maintenance as a result of lack of funds. As a

consequence the Government, in collaboration with bilateral andmulti-

lateral agencies, decided to organize water user associations and transfer

to them responsibility for rebuilding the infrastructure of

the irrigation systems. The first project of this type began

in 1987. It was financed by the United States Agency for

International Development with the technical assistance of

Utah State University in two pilot areas: Ysura in the south

and Ulises Francisco Espiallat in the north. This project

was followed by others, giving birth to a programme that

was extended to all irrigated areas.

Some of the key projects implemented during this

time include:

• the AGLIPO I and AGLIPO II Agricultural

Development Projects and the Project for

Technological Improvement of Irrigated Agriculture,

financed by the Japan Bank International

Corporation with the technical assistance of the

Japan International Cooperation Agency

• the San Juan Agricultural Development Project,

aided by the Inter-American Development Bank

(IDB) and IEDF

• the Irrigated Land and Basin Management Project,

funded by the World Bank

• the Management Program for Irrigation Systems for

Water User Associations, funded by IDB

• the Program for Reconstruction and Improvement

of Damages of Hurricane George, funded by IDB.

DR has received cooperation in water education and

institutional development and in water cooperation,

sustainability and poverty eradication from many other

institution and organizations, both national and inter-

national, including the German Technical Cooperation;

the USA Corp of Engineers; Brigham Young University,

USA; and organizations from Israel, Holland, Mexico,

Chile, Brazil and Spain.

One of the most interesting examples of water educa-

tion, cooperation and institutional development is the

Water Culture Program initiated in 1997 with the main

objective of raising awareness about the importance of

water preservation among the population. In order to

create this programme an inter-institutional agreement

was signed between all the institutions in the DR water

sector and some in the educational sector. These included

the Water Resources National Institute, the Secretary of

State for Education, Fine Arts and Culture, the Secretary

of State for Health and Welfare, the National Institute of

ater

ducation

and

nstitutional

evelopment

The country now produces more than 80 per cent of the food it needs

Image: José Del Carmen Cabrera