PRINCE PORT.- The Haitian government reiterated this Thursday that the construction of the controversial canal in The Masacre River, the natural border of this country with the Dominican Republic, must move forward and has decided to support the work despite the conflict that arose with Santo Domingo.
“Yes, the canal needs to be built. Yes, you need to ensure that the water enters the canals properly. Yes, through solidarity and unity, the land (the plain of) Maribahoux can be irrigated,” the Haitian Ministry of Agriculture said in a statement this Thursday.
The statement continues that “the ministry has decided to support the construction of the canal to ensure that technical standards are met and that it does not have an impact on the lives of people and plantations” in the Maribahoux Plain.
In addition, the ministry denies reports that it communicated to the Dominican Republic a secret document that would confirm that country’s position on the canal, the construction of which has led Dominican President Luis Abinader to take various measures, including the total closure of the borders between both countries since last Friday.
“The ministry denies this rumor, which has no basis,” states the ministry, which ensures that it always takes positions in favor of the farmers of the Maribahoux plain.
For this reason, he emphasizes, “in all meetings, the Ministry has always defended Haiti’s right to benefit in a balanced manner from the resources it shares with its Dominican neighbor.”
In this sense, efforts are being made through the Northeast Divisional Directorate to accompany the construction work on the canal, as requested by the government in a statement dated September 13.
The Ministry of Agriculture emphasizes that it is always ready “to sit down with all the sectors involved in the construction of the canal in order to better plan the work,” adding: “The mobilization is an expression of the solidarity and patriotism of a population that wants the world show that Haiti is free.
The canal work has led to a crisis with the Dominican Republic, which, in addition to closing its borders, has decided to suspend the issuance of visas for Haitians, ban the “initiators” of the controversial project from entering the country, build a dam and begin reactivation work begin a water intake in the adjacent river (started on Wednesday) and increase the military presence in the demarcation areas.
For the Dominican government, the construction of the canal on the Haitian side of the river violates the Treaty of Peace, Friendship and Arbitration of 1929 and the Protocol of Revision of 1936, the articles of which state: “Both parties to the treaty undertake not to make any agreements or to them to consent to any “work capable of altering the flow of these sources or altering the product of their sources.”
