Director of INAPA suggests creation, by law, of ministry to regulate DR water sector

SANTO DOMINGO. The executive director of the National Institute of Water and Sewers (INAPA), Alberto Holguin, explained that in order to have an efficient management of the water in this country a ministry should be created which brings together the eight existing institutions, through the approval of the legislative proposal on water which has been stalled in the National Congress for 16 years.

He regretted that because of different interests there still does not exist in the Dominican Republic any regulatory framework that permits the government to apply a national water policy.

"We should organize ourselves with a Law, which is the fundamental part. We are eight institutions, who are friendly, and we try to combine what we do, but the fact is that a regulatory framework doesn't exist which can permit the government to apply a water policy in the national sense," he analyzed.

Holguin spoke as he participated as the invitee on the Dialogo Libre, where he answered questions from a staff of reporters headed by the director of the Diario Libre, Adriano Miguel Tejada, and the editor-in-chief of the Diario Libre, Nelson Rodriguez.

The official reported that he objected to this legislative proposal because it has the intention of privatizing the water, in addition to the fact that it was thought up in the decade of the 1990s and took as a reference the reality of other countries which does not correspond to the needs which this country has.

He said that he felt that in the water sector the government cannot divide it into pieces, but rather there should exist a single institution which regulates the sector in order to eliminate bureaucracy and provide a more efficient use of the public resources. In this manner he believes that they could have employees and technicians who are better trained to perform their tasks.

"That would be less bureaucracy because you are joining eight institutions into one. We going to reduce bureaucracy, we are going to improve the training of the technicians.... In order that they can provide a service to the entire country in the essential things," he told the reporters.

He spelled out that even though as a businessman he can't be against the private sector, he understands that with such a delicate problem and with such enormous investments which constitute drinking water, one has to be careful with business participation.

He recalled that a businessman seeks to increase income, reduce costs and sees how he can pay fewer taxes, and therefore he has no social mission.

He indicated that the government should make this public company function as an efficient private enterprise, but achieving transparency. "The problem of the public sector is corruption. The company of the public sector doesn't work because of the ‘blessed' corruption which has marked us throughout history," he reflected.

Holguin said that in his management at INAPA he is carrying out transformations in order to achieve the transition towards a public company, efficient and transparent.

He reported that at the present time he is working with the Ministry of Economy, Planning and Development in order to create a model of the law which would be in accord with the social-economic and cultural conditions that exist in the country.

In his analysis the only sector that might have private water as a business is the tourist sector such as occurs in Bavaro, Punta Cana.

However he believes that the ideal thing is that these important investments which have been made benefit all the country and not just the tourists.

They will extend projects of water treatment plants

The executive director of INAPA reported that they have planned for the extension of the project of construction of water treatment plants in other provinces in the south such as San Jose DE Ocoa and Azua. At the present time, he noted, this is being carried out in Villa Vasquez, Montecristi, with an investment of €25,379,588.72, and includes the construction of a sewer system. The work began last February.

He said that this project involves the sewer system of San Fernando de Montecristi, Villa Vasquez and San Cristobal, in a first stage. He reported that in a second stage they would include Ocoa, Santiago and Neiba.

No more regional corporations

Holguin said that the country cannot continue creating Water and Sewer Corporations (Coras) because this is just repeating the existing evils. "We cannot continue creating Coras, the Coras have continued repeating the bad parts of INAPA, the lack of efficiency of INAPA," he said.

He made it clear that INAPA cannot have, in La Vega, a specialist at the water treatment plant, but rather they should have technicians available which provide support in special cases throughout the country.

He argued for the decentralization of the water sector in order that there should exist just one center for planning, another center for construction projects and one to control the resources so that these public regional enterprises only have to concern themselves with management.

He defends the transparency of his administration

The executive director of the National Institute of Water and Sewers (INAPA), Alberto Holguin, defended the transparency with which he has handled this institution; and he explained that when he took office as a result of the tropical storms Sandy and Isaac he had to contract services "one-on-one" in order to deal with the emergency situation which was created.

He revealed that upon taking this job he adopted measures such as contracting private supervision of work, as well as of the expense reports from the projects. He also said that he eliminated the so-called "treasurers," people who without being contracted set about collecting invoices in exchange for 25% of the amount collected. He defended his honesty and he said that every day he fights corruption. He regretted that for some being an official of the government is synonymous with being "a thief."