Perhaps a few knew that the Dominican Republic had the largest open-air landfill in Latin America. This landfill receives thousands of tons of waste of all kinds daily, which serve as a livelihood for hundreds of people.
In 2020 the health authorities had announced the future closure of the landfill, to move it to the outskirts of the city. To reach this stage of disassembly of the landfill, the Dominican government collaborated with specialist and hygiene and financial institutions. The collaboration of the Japan International Cooperation Agency of the Inter-American Development Bank has been important in this regard.
However, the dismantling of the landfill has updated the unconformities of health institutions, health agency and surrounding communities, both with the existence of the landfill for decades, and with its disappearance. Hundreds of people who traditionally scavenge in the garbage earn their living daily in this dump. Most of the collectors are Haitian immigrants, who would lose their only livelihood if the dump disappears.
Therefore, its relocation also includes relocation projects and assistance to these vulnerable people. One of the proposals is to respect the work culture that these people and communities have earned with their collection work for years, and to formalize them, creating a recycling network between them and the official markets for the recovery of raw materials.
To this end, a census or mapping is needed to show who are the people involved in this type of recycling and what practices they carry out.
The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) plays a leading role in the transfer of the La Duquesa landfill. According to data published by the institution with the aim of raising public awareness of the project, the La Duquesa landfill is the fifth in the world, after the other large landfills in Jakarta, Nairobi, Lagos and the Great Patch (the island of plastics in the Pacific).
The planned announcement of the closure of the landfill is the first action of a project to last for 5 years, due to the complexity and diversity of aspects covered by it. In the place that occupies La Duquesa will create a wooded park, for this they have been given gradually reducing the arrival of garbage to the place, diverting the flow and the depositions to uneven terrain sun use or as landfill.
The new landfill that will receive the large flow of waste of all kinds generated by the region, will be located on the outskirts of the city, although its final location has not yet been determined. This new landfill will have a more modern and safer infrastructure, with a pre-separation and recycling plant for materials.
The budget for the relocation, associated projects and construction of the new landfill is currently $110 million. The Inter-American Development Bank leads the three institutions that finance the project, with a contribution of 44.2 million dollars, followed by the Japan International Cooperation Agency, with 45 million, and Spanish Cooperation with 20 million.