Mirador Norte La Zurza Waste Water Treatment Plant, one of the largest in the Caribbean region, opens in Santo Domingo

17 July, 2020

The Mirador Norte La Zurza Waste Water Treatment Plant (WWTP), located in Santo Domingo, has been inaugurated by the President of the Dominican Republic, Danilo Medina. The 58-million-euro WWTP, one of the largest in the Caribbean region, was designed and constructed by Incatema Consulting & Engineering for the Water and Sewerage Corporation of Santo Domingo (CAASD). The inauguration and start-up of this infrastructure (as reported here), once Incatema Consulting had satisfactorily carried out its operational tests, solves the problem of how to treat the waste water discharged into the Isabela and Ozama rivers. Their high levels of contamination and proximity to the Caribbean Sea, into which both rivers flow just a few miles downstream from the plant, have seen them declared an emergency situation.

The plant will have a direct impact on improving the living conditions for around 450,000 people in the 37 neighbourhoods of country’s capital, located in the Gran Santo Domingo area. It will have a similar effect on the environment, given that the main rivers will receive around 100,000m3 of clean water per day, as well as create some 3,550m3 of sludge a month that can be used in agriculture and industry.

In the words of the company’s general manager, José María Arribas, “we feel particularly proud of the contribution that we have made to fulfilling UN Sustainable Development Goal 6, which aims to halve the proportion of untreated wastewater globally by 2030.”