Top official repeats deadline: No more farms on ravaged highlands

Santo Domingo.- Environment minister FranciscoDominguez on Monday reiterated his January 20 deadline of no more farms withinRancier National Park, Valle Nuevo, in Constanza’s highlands.

He said there’s been contact with the squatterswho seek lands to farm at other places and stressed that Valle Nuevo is thesource for much of the water consumed by the inhabitants of Santiago, La Vegaand other major provinces.

"If Valle Nuevo disappears there will beno water in the Yaque (river), no water in the entire Cibao (northern valley) andwhich feeds this river, they were simply taking and illegally seizing all mountainsideslooking for virgin lands every day," Dominguez said after signing acooperation agreement with Santiago Water Utility director Silvio Duran.