In a defiant and gross violation of Law 64-00, that must take care of this ecological system as a protected area, large sinkholes wound the bowels of these thousand-year-old mountains of sand, as well as all its endermic and particular vegetation.
ecological damage
Tens of dump trucks and dump trucks of up to 20 cubic meters extract sand againas revealed by producers in the area, farmers, residents of Las Calderas, Los Tumbaos and Quijá Quieta, the sands of the Banilejas Dunes.
This occurs again just in an area that does one year and two months Listín Diario caught the attention of the country in a series of reports and editorial notes, revealing the damages caused by truckers unions, owners of hardware stores and other actors in the construction industry who operate with complete impunity, in the face of authorities that are indolent in the face of this serious ecological crime.
recurring
Precisely on Sunday, January 23, 2022, after the publications of the reports and editorials of Listín, giving an account of clandestine excavations In this place, authorities from the Ministry of the Environment, aided by teams from the National Environmental Protection Service (SENPA) and the Dominican Navy, carried out operations in these Dunas de Las Calderas and their surroundings, where they seized dump trucks and other equipment used for the clandestine extraction of the sands of that natural monument.
It also ordered the arrest of drivers and the submission to justice of those responsible for this flagrant ecological crime and “that the more than 500 cubic meters of sand that were seized in hardware stores and clandestine collection centers would be returned to their original place.
It is recalled that these operations were called “Operation Dunas”, ordered directly by the Minister of the Environment, on that occasion, Orlando Jorge Mera, who tragically died in June 2002.
At that time, Jorge Mera, guaranteed the country, “that from now on there will be no more extraction of materials in the natural monument Las Dunas and that he would be the guardian of all the protected areas of the country.”
However, the opposite has happened, not only that not a single grain of those 33 piles of sand and other seized was returned to its place of origin, but also that three times as much volume of these precious materials has continued to be extracted and Other points of greater ecological sensitivity have been opened.
gate was starting
Even down to the iron gate that was placed on the place that time to ensure that these unscrupulous people did not penetrate other times was torn off and disappeared from the placeleaving the area totally open and without any environmental control.
in the same placesEnvironmental damage is now taking place at the site that the truckers themselves who steal their sand have called “La Mina”, located about 200 meters from the sea coast, in Matanzas, and 500 meters east of Arrollo Aguzadera, just the aquifer that gives birth to Las Dunas de Las Calderas, according to environmentalists.
Operation modeThese actions are carried out clandestinely at night and in the early morning, as witnesses from the area say that “those vehicles with a large load capacity begin to operate from 6:00 in the afternoon and do not stop until the end of the night.” early morning, about 12 hours later, ”they say.
They claim that since the settlers leave their farms, between 5:00 and 6:00 in the afternoon, along the road that gives access to the excavation areaon many occasions “first a kind of motorized military patrol (two people dressed as soldiers) comes down, and between 20 and 25 minutes later the parade of dump trucks and dump trucks begins, “those who leave the site full of sand”, until 6 o’clock :00 in the morning.
And here no one does anything, no authority takes notice, although everyone knows what is happening, these impotent townspeople say.
new extractionsThe challenge to authority is so irreverent that they have opened other undermining points, about 10 meters to the west of Arrollo Aguzadera, less than 20 meters away from the shore of the Caribbean Sea, where they arrive from the road that runs from Matanzas to Las Calderas, between farms of agricultural producers, those that do not respect.
They use the neighborhood roads that connect the agricultural plots of the place, which they turn into looting routes through which they move in their criminal vehicles the sandy material that they subtract from this natural monument.
The investigationsReporters from Listín Diario, after days of investigation, traversing the almost 20 kilometers of extension of these sensitive Banilejas dunes, declared by decree 233-96 Félix Servio Doucoudray Scientific Reserve, and Category III Natural Monument, were able to access the attacked sites.
During this tour, it was possible to contact the serious and sad reality that this ecological heritage of the Caribbean, of the country and of the banilejos, not only continues to be attacked in the same places that have been denounced for decades, but new attacks are taking place in places as critical as less than 10 meters from the stream that gives birth to them, right in the beach area where Arroyo Aguzadera flows into.
other damage
They not only attack our dunes, they say, but they also damage our neighborhood roads, tear down palisades, damage the local vegetation and even destroy part of our products without caring about anything, they express with marked impotence in their words.
Jorge Mera before his death
“For years, the mafias have commercialized illegal sand from the protected area Las Dunas de Las Calderas, in Baní.
In this administration, we have decided to end this and bring criminals who affect the environment to justice. There will be no environmental impunity”, said Jorge Mera while still alive in January 2022.