One Of The Most Polluted Caribbean Locations Is A Dominican Coastal City To Avoid At All Costs

Mention the Dominican Republic, and thoughts of the ultimate tropical vacation instantly spring to mind. The island oasis is ringed by some of the Caribbean's best beaches, where endless sand, turquoise waters, and breathtaking biodiversity transport piña colada-loving visitors to a sun-kissed getaway. Not only does the Dominican Republic promise incredible natural beauty, but it also boasts some of the Caribbean's most affordable all-inclusive resorts, making it a budget-friendly paradise for 8.5 million annual tourists. 

Sadly, the Caribbean's top tourist destination is anything but paradise for residents living in the Dominican coastal city of Bajos de Haina, an industrial hub on the south of the island. That's because it has been a long-time dumping ground for astronomical levels of lead and other toxic chemicals, making the area one of the most polluted Caribbean locations to avoid at all costs.

The heartbreaking story of Bajos de Haina, or simply Haina, stretches back to the 1950s.  Older residents recall an idyllic time when you could swim in the immaculate Rio Haina and freely pluck fruit from the town's abundance of lush trees to eat. Then the government built one of the world's largest sugar mills here, which brought jobs to the community and attracted workers from neighboring Haiti. But this kicked off a wave of factory openings that paved the way for Haina to become a major industrial zone conveniently located on the outskirts of Santo Domingo, the island's capital, just 30 minutes away.

Next, Refidomsa, the Dominican Republic's only oil refinery, arrived in the 70s. A host of other chemical-producing, off-gassing companies followed, in particular factories that recycled batteries and smelted lead. The factories contaminated Haina's soil, river, air, and beaches with extreme levels of lead, earning the town its tragic nickname of the Dominican Chernobyl.

At one point in the early 2000s, Haina's contamination was so severe that the United Nations (UN) declared that the entire population suffered from some degree of lead poisoning. The global organization deemed Haina the most lead-contaminated place in the world. Along with the hazardous metal, the city's factories released even more perilous agents into the environment, including arsenic and an organ-damaging toxin called antimony. Residents began suffering no end of grave symptoms. Convulsions, seizures, respiratory problems, skin lesions, and severe neurological damage have all been reported.

Haina's children suffered the worst. In the United States, a blood lead concentration of 10 micrograms per deciliter, or µg/dl, is a clear indicator of lead poisoning. Testing in the late 90s revealed staggering blood lead concentrations in children, with more than 25% having between 40 and 99 µg/dL. "The doctors could not understand how some of these people were still alive," remarked Dominican chemistry professor Conrado Depratt to an investigative journalist for Al Jazeera in 2022. Incredibly, the reporter was stricken with a sore throat, cough, skin rash, and burning eyes and lips, a half hour into conducting interviews near Haina's tainted factories.

Haina residents eventually banded together in protest. Some factories closed, while others stayed and claimed to go green. But the damage was already done. Clean-up efforts began hopefully enough but sharply dampened when the removal of lead-exposed soil only brought more to the surface. Questionable wastewater has seeped into Haina's beaches, which are also littered with an assortment of plastic and trash, much like Kamilo Beach, the "plastic beach" of Hawaii that's one of the dirtiest places on Earth. So while the Dominican Republic is filled with sunny and pristine beaches, Haina sadly isn't among them.