Dominican government clarifies that Haiti has no grant to use the Dajabón river

The Dominican Republic has not expressly granted Haiti the right to regulated use of the waters of the Dajabón transboundary river, said high-ranking sources in the government of President Luis Abinader.

So far, the only formal agreement that exists is a declaration of intent issued by the Dominican-Haitian Joint Bilateral Commission that creates a Technical Table to discuss this possibility for the future.

After President Abinader said last weekend in Jarabacoa that he was surprised by the version that Haiti had been given the green light to take advantage of the waters of the Dajabón River, also known as Massacre, a governing source reaffirmed that so far what has been decided is to leave it in the hands of the Technical Board any decision in this regard.

The Technical Board had planned to meet again this week, but the meeting has been postponed without a fixed date.

Haiti is currently building a canal in the border area to connect it to the Dajabón river and divert water to its territory, which has been agreed by the parties based on what is set forth in a friendship treaty signed with the Dominican Republic in 1929 on transboundary rivers.

Vast extensions of land, mainly cultivated with rice, benefit from irrigation and the government plans to expand the area up to 200 thousand hectares with the development of a dam on the Artibonito River, as announced by the Dominican president.