The Dominican Republic faces ongoing climate-related challenges, including flooding, mudslides, and increasing temperatures resulting in salinization, rising sea-levels, and coastal erosion. The Dominican Republic is located in the Atlantic hurricane belt, making it vulnerable to increasingly more frequent and devastating hurricanes and storms, further placing its economy, infrastructure, and people at risk.
These challenges disproportionately afect Dominicans living in under-served, densely populated areas. This includes the coastal communities of the nation’s larger cities such as Santo Domingo. High salinity levels require more desalination plants to provide fresh water, placing additional economic constraints on the people of the Dominican Republic. Additionally, sea-level rise afects coastal infrastructure and can negatively impact the tourism industry, an essential contributor to the Dominican economy.
