If the flow of a tropical island nation’s main river varies by 80 percent between the dry and wet seasons, something is wrong. In a protected watershed, the flow varies by only 20 percent, indicating the role of healthy soils that store moisture and release it slowly rather than letting it run off at lightning speed.

That’s the predicament facing the northern Yaque River in the Dominican Republic, a Caribbean mountainous country of 10.5 million people. Today, the river’s water pressure is about 96 percent, meaning that virtually all the water the river can sustainably carry is consumed by a growing urban population, plantations and industries. But changes are afoot that will bring both short-term and long-term benefits.

Over the past 15 years, committed partnerships between civil society and the public and private sectors have developed sustainable land and water management strategies that work for everyone – smallholder farmers, energy providers and financiers – creating a blueprint that others can draw inspiration from.

Experts working on the rehabilitation of the northern Yaque River Basin, which covers 14.6 percent of the country, shared their approach and the factors for success in improving water supplies for more than 1.8 million people and strengthening drought resilience in the face of climate change.

Partnership with water users

The civil society-led Northern Yaque River Basin Development Plan (Plan Yaque) brings together 32 civil society and government institutions to reforest watersheds, train farmers in sustainable land and water management, and help communities treat wastewater before it is discharged into the river.

Plan Yaque, in turn, acts as technical advisor and key project implementer of the Northern Yaque Water Fund, a financial and administrative mechanism launched in 2015 to raise and manage funds for water security in the basin.

The fund is one of two such structures in the Dominican Republic and brings together 27 partners, including the Ministry of Environment, universities and the water utility of the country’s second-largest city, Santiago. It also involves major users such as manufacturing companies and banana, rice and tobacco producers’ associations – which is crucial since agriculture is estimated to account for 85 percent of water consumption in the region.

“The Water Fund is based on the belief that no single stakeholder can do this alone,” says Walkiria Estévez, executive director of the Water Fund, pointing out that the Dominican Republic is one of the countries with the greatest water scarcity in the world.

Ensuring financial sustainability

Private sector partners contribute financially to the fund, while each customer of Santiago’s water company contributes a small amount.

The money is then invested in various portfolios and 75 percent of the profits are used to support nature-based solutions for water security. The rest goes back into the fund to grow it. But how did the fund get the private sector on board in the first place?

“We are not talking about donations, but about investments,” says Estévez. “The private sector is investing to secure a crucial raw material – water – for its activities today and in the future. Ultimately, it is about users taking responsibility for the sustainable management of a vital resource.”

Maintain responsibility

For Estévez, outcome measurement, financial accountability and transparency were key to gaining and maintaining partners’ trust, including starting with evidence-based but high-impact interventions with low investment.

“We didn’t wait until the trust fund had reached a significant size to start funding projects and presenting results. This was crucial to prove that our model worked and to maintain momentum,” she says.

However, she points out that continued growth of the fund is important to implement successful strategies at scale and support new ones, such as upcoming training sessions to help lowland farmers protect their soils and improve water use efficiency, which currently stands at less than 30 percent, according to technical project coordinator Alberto Lizardo.

Artificial wetland in the Dominican Republic

Use of nature-based solutions

The most important catchment interventions include artificial wetlands, which are treatment systems that use natural processes involving wetland vegetation, soils and associated microbial diversity to improve water quality.

Plan Yaque is the non-governmental organization behind the development and implementation of these low-tech, low-maintenance systems. They have proven to be a game-changing solution for rural communities. To date, 34 of these systems have been built.

Wastewater from septic tanks of homes and schools is channeled into the man-made wetland, where microorganisms, aquatic plants and sunlight remove more than 90 percent of pollutants before the water is released into the river. Water pollution, along with flow reduction, is one of the two main problems threatening water safety in the basin.

“The nature-based system works wonderfully and requires no input or maintenance, except for the removal of sewage sludge every three months, which the communities themselves carry out,” says Humberto Checo, founder and executive director of Plan Yaque and one of the leaders of the movement for the restoration and management of watersheds in the country.

Working in micro catchment areas

For Checo of Plan Yaque, the key to success is to focus each intervention on selected areas drained by streams or micro-watersheds – 52 mosaic pieces that together make up the Yaque River basin.

The non-governmental organization conducted a diagnosis of the 19 micro-watersheds in the upper basin and prioritized those with high water production and immediate threat from the expansion of the agricultural frontier, leading to deforestation and the loss of the natural systems that maintain adequate water flow.

They then identified key farms or producer associations and set about demonstrating why it would be in their interest to transition from slash-and-burn to self-sustaining forestry and agroforestry systems.

Changing mindsets

“Changing the mindset to transform land management family by family is the most important part of the entire strategy and our most important learning,” says Checo.

Short-cycle crops like corn, sweet potatoes and yuca mean farmers have to work relentlessly into old age to make a living, he says. Growing macadamia nut trees, orchards and even coffee, on the other hand, ensures a good future income source with minimal effort, while regenerating soil and protecting watersheds. Land-use planning across the farm is part of this approach.

The parched, barren hills of farmers who carried on as usual 15 years ago now stand alongside the stunningly green slopes of those who have chosen to switch to more sustainable agricultural practices, revitalizing the landscape and creating economic security for current and future generations along the way. These kinds of efforts are largely responsible for making the Dominican Republic a global hotspot for land restoration.

“Sustainability lies in this newfound awareness of the need to work together to care for the natural systems that sustain us,” says Estévez of the Water Fund. “That is ultimately what we are striving for.”

Implement what works on a large scale

Plan Yaque has also implemented a Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) system with the support of hydropower and water utilities, and the country recently passed its first PES law.

The next challenge, Checo says, is to bring these and other internationally acclaimed, science-based initiatives to micro-watersheds across the country.

“After decades of experience in watershed restoration and protection, we know what works,” says Checo. “With the right strategies and investments, we could expand that expertise while supporting the next generation of landscapers.”