Agriculture reports damage and isolated communities due to storm Melissa

Santo Domingo.- The Ministry of Agriculture reported this Friday that, due to the rains caused by storm Melissa, damage has occurred in plots of Peravia, which remain incommunicado due to the rise of the Ocoa and Nizao rivers, as well as highlighted that other points of the national territory are isolated, the institution reported this Friday. Thus, in San José de Ocoa, the El Pinal community is completely isolated due to the damage caused to the local roads, the ministry indicated in a statement.

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Similarly, the community of Manaclar, in Baní, a “highly productive area for coffee, poultry and pig farms”, is cut off due to a landslide on a mountain. In addition, in the province of San Cristóbal, minor damage to production was reported, while in the provinces of San Juan, Barahona and Pedernales no significant deterioration has been recorded in poultry farms, livestock or agricultural production. The Vice Minister of Production and Marketing of the Ministry of Agriculture, Eulalio Ramírez, made a visit this Friday to high-risk areas and part of the Sabaneta dam, which is at its maximum flow. “Currently (the dam) is spilling water through the Virola hole at a rate of 13 millimeters per second, in addition to the 10 millimeters extracted through the turbines for generation and irrigation purposes,” the ministry indicated. Ramírez pointed out that “so far, the accumulated waters do not represent a danger to food production, since abundant rains have only been recorded in the south; in the Cibao region and the north, the showers have been scarce”. Agriculture also indicated that as part of the preventive measures, regional brigades of the ministry have cleaned berms, irrigation canals and opened the main irrigation channels in agricultural areas, with the aim of avoiding damage during the passage of the phenomenon.