Climate change could to flood 13% of Dominican, Haitian coasts

Domincan Today: The impact of climatic change threatens “in a relatively brief period” the onset of flooding in 13% of the territory along the coasts in the island of Hispaniola, shared by Dominican Republic and Haiti, because of a rising sea level, with a devastating effect for the economy if corrective measures aren’t taken in time to mitigate the effects of global warming.

The gloomy forecast was delivered by vice president Rafael Alburquerque yesterday to delegates from 179 countries in the 16th Summit on Climatic Change. Alburquerque, who heads the Dominican delegation in the world conclave, said the country will have to spend more than US$8.5 billion to adequately deal with the impact of global warming in the areas of tourism, water and energy.

He warned that the effects of climatic change have been clearly felt in the island for a long time, and as an example cited the constant swelling of the lakes Enriquillo and Azuei, whose floods have left hundreds of thousands of acres of agro and pasture lands under water and forced hundreds of poor farming families from their homes….

Map of San Domingo in the island of Hispaniola, from a plate by Montanus, in 1671