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National Geographic : 1977 Oct
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In fast company, a young entrepreneur of Santiago delivers vegetables (above). The more leisurely pace of a hired carriage is the lot of another child (facing page). A sign on the back acknowledges the motor age with an advertisement for brake repairs. With his nation disabled by an illiteracy rate of at least 50 percent and seriously over crowded primary schools, President Bala guer spends millions of dollars a year for improvements in facilities and teaching quality. Yet for thousands who must go to work on the streets or in the fields, school ing will end after three or four years. "Jobs! That is the whole idea of a free zone. And look at all those women working! Bet ter! The money goes into the home, not rum and gambling on the way home." Cigar makers, producing top-notch cigars like Dos Gonzalez and Ricardo Samuel, were heavily represented in the zone, because San tiago is surrounded by tobacco plantations growing a quality leaf that rivals Cuba's. Be cause Santiago is also headquarters for Ber mudez, the largest rum company, Rafael Herrera, editor of Santo Domingo's Listin Diario,jokingly accuses the city of fostering "a sin economy, rum and tobacco." Trying to Match Dams and Canals In truth, Santiago is more interested in water than rum. Santiagueros were the driv ing force behind the new Tavera Dam, 15 miles south, but they feel frustrated. With irrigation an urgent necessity, Tavera is still primarily a power facility, awaiting canals. Santiagueros maintain that if the central government had let a local agency manage Tavera, there would be plenty of canals. As Santiago-born banker Jimmy Pastoriza summed it up: "We have now Tavera Dam without enough canals, and elsewhere canals without a dam." To show what they can do on their own, Santiagueros point to their brand-new potable water supply system. They regret to see that Santo Domingo still has much undrinkable water and severe water shortages. In Santo Domingo, Frank Pifieyro, water czar of the capital, said: "This city has grown too fast. We are trying to bring water to 200,000 rural people who have settled mainly in the eastern section in the past ten years." Engineer Pifieyro thinks improving rural conditions will help keep them down on the farm. "We have built 300 rural water-supply systems and plan 350 more. That will serve a million countrymen." Sewage-disposal plants are, generally, far off for country people, and Santo Domingo's raw sewage will go into the Caribbean for years to come. On the Atlantic coast, however, both Puerto Plata and Sosuia already have plants to ensure that their beaches stay love ly. The towns are the nuclei of the govern ment's effort to turn the north coast into a luxury tourist resort. Between them Presi dent Balaguer is locating the jet strips of an National Geographic,October 1977 558
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