Bani is thirsty

[NewsWhore]

Community leaders, church representatives and housewives have joined forces to warn about the serious situation in the southwestern provincial capital of Bani. The city is without potable water, and people are paying as much as RD$1,000 per month to purchase water for their homes. According to Listin Diario, most of the blame for this situation lies with the National Institute for Potable Water (INAPA) that, according to the local population, is not maintaining the water pumps needed to supply the city. This water shortage has meant that a new business of water trucks has sprung up, supplying five gallons of "pure" water for RD$30. Like most cities along the Dominican Republic's south coast, Bani was accustomed to drilling artesian wells and pumping the water to tanks where it then flowed to the local population. Nowadays, many of the wells are now polluted with seawater and unfit for human consumption. According to municipal officials, some areas have gone without a piped water supply for over a year, and, as a result, the local population has returned to storing water in cement-lined drums, which has led to an increase in the mosquito population.

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