In 2010, students and residents undertook a technical study to better understand the solid waste management challenges facing the community. The full report of the 2010 practicum course can be explored using the link below.
Because the solid waste problem was identified as the primary cause of flooding and public health problems facing Los Platanitos as a result of the 2008 risk and vulnerability assessment, this became the focus of the 2010 practicum course. Students worked in close cooperation with residents to conduct a participatory solid waste assessment in the community, documenting the social, cultural, and political-economic causes of the trash problem and examining possible solutions. Students and residents then worked to share and discuss their findings with municipal government officials and local civicl society organizations.
While the immediate goal of the project was to assess conditions of solid waste management in Los Platanitos, project partners saw the solid waste conditions in the community as symptomatic of a broader problematic. The other 30+ cañadas in Santo Domingo Norte suffer in similar circumstances due t similar inadequacies in infrastructure and service delivery. The hope is that the work conducted in Los Platanitos can serve as a pilot-project for community-based solid waste management not only in Los Platanitos but in Santo Domingo Norte as a whole and elsewhere in the Caribbean and Latin America.
