Development of the San Cristóbal sanitation system
Although the municipality of San Cristóbal in the Dominican Republic already has a wastewater treatment plant, it only receives 10% of its treatment capacity due to the lack of sewer systems - only 60 km of much degraded sanitation networks can be found in a limited central area, serving less than 50% of the population. This leads to discharges of untreated wastewater to the Nigua river, which results in negative health and environmental impacts. Moreover, the sanitation service is unsustainable due to inadequate prices and bill collection rates.
This project expands San Cristobal’s wastewater structures in order to improve the sanitary and environmental conditions of the municipality. It also strengthens the capacities at institutional level in terms of operational and commercial efficiency, financial sustainability, and planning of the water/sanitation services.
The action is divided into two phases. The first one connects the city’s central districts by building or rebuilding the sanitation networks and a pilot plant for septic sludge in the already existing wastewater treatment plant to ensure the complete and effective treatment of all new effluent arriving. The EU contribution provides technical assistance for this phase, identifying key investments in water infrastructure, and bringing about a comprehensive approach to the project. It covers the designs of infrastructure as well as capacity building on financial and operational water management skills for relevant institutions. These designs will facilitate the second phase, which will expand the scope of the intervention to an integral wastewater management of the municipality of San Cristóbal following a City-Wide Inclusive Sanitation (CWIS) approach combining centralized and decentralized sanitation.
New and improved sanitation infrastructure will significantly reduce the health and environmental burden due to the discharge of non-treated wastewater to the river Nigua and to its infiltration towards the subsurface water table.
Risks of water-based diseases will be reduced, and living conditions will be improved. Access to safely managed sanitation services will be provided to 65 000 inhabitants, and social funding for 40% of the connections for the most vulnerable population will reduce inequalities.
The project also contributes to climate change adaptation. Works will reduce by 40% the pollution discharged to the river, improving environmental quality, and protecting biodiversity. They will also reduce the risk of flooding and carry over during strong rains, and energy efficiency will be improved at the plant with the support of dedicated technical assistance.
