Constructing Wetlands to Combat Water Pollution in the Dominican Republic

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Robert Crook and Plan Yaque's Director Humberto Checo visiting one of the CWs Plan Yaque built
One of the strategies of the Farmer-to-Farmer Program in the Dominican Republic is rural adaptation and resilience. One of the hosts, Plan Yaque, works toward improving the quality of the water that crosses through the town of Jarabacoa and goes directly to the Yaque del Norte River, the biggest river basin in the country and the most important river for the agricultural sector. They are currently building constructed (artificial) wetlands to filtrate polluted water from this first city that the river crosses.

According to the EPA, artificial wetlands are treatment systems that use natural processes involving vegetation, soils, and associated microbial assemblages to improve water quality. Volunteer Robert Crook, a specialist on constructed wetlands (CWs) and floating islands for water treatment, visited the country in February 2020 to help Plan Yaque design a special CW. Robert worked with them in the development of wetlands to treat farming wastewater, such as cattle and coffee processing wastewaters.

Robert Crook giving a talk about CWs to forestry and environmental management students of the Institute of Environment 
To be able to achieve this, Plan Yaque staff along with Robert Crook and F2F Field Officer Gabriela Rosa visited strategic places such as pig farms, intensive and extensive cattle farms, the municipal slaughterhouse, coffee processing plants, landfills and chayote plantations. These visits, accompanied by technologies Robert explained such as bioreactors, floating islands and biodigesters, facilitated their understanding of the real situation and illustrated the discussion about the design needs of the new CW.

The team that worked on this assignment concluded that each pollution source must be treated differently, which in Jarabacoa’s case include:
The assignment team discussing different pollution sources and possible solutions
  • Collect information on soils where pig waste is created.
  • Develop a bioreactor pilot for different agricultural activities and a CWs pilot for small coffee processing factories.
  • Manage vegetation on creeks and river riparian zones.
  • Create coursework on CWs and renewable energy for the Institute of Environment as it could be a future job for students.

After discussing all the information, the team concluded that no problem has only one solution. Only a set of solutions will lead to sustainability, and environmental and social responsibility.

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