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Dominican Republic Urbanization
For most of its history, the Dominican Republic was
overwhelmingly rural; in 1920 over 80 percent of its
populace
lived in the countryside, and by 1950 more than 75 percent
still
did. Substantial urban expansion began in the 1950s, and
it
gained tremendous momentum in the 1960s and the 1970s.
Urban
growth rates far outdistanced those of the country as a
whole.
The urban population expanded at 6.1 percent annually
during the
1950s, 5.7 percent annually during the 1960s-70s, and 4.7
percent
annually through the mid-1980s.
In the early decades of the twentieth century, the
country
was not only largely rural, but the urban scene itself was
dominated by smaller cities and provincial capitals. In
1920
nearly 80 percent of all city dwellers lived in cities
with fewer
than 20,000 inhabitants. Santo Domingo, with barely more
than
30,000 residents, accounted for only 20 percent of those
in
cities. By contrast, in 1981 Santo Domingo alone accounted
for
nearly half of all city dwellers; it had more than double
the
total population of all cities of more than 20,000
inhabitants.
Cities with fewer than 20,000 inhabitants--nearly 80
percent of
the urban population in 1920--constituted less than 20
percent by
1981.
Santo Domingo approximately doubled its population
every
decade between 1920 and 1970. Its massive physical
expansion,
however, dated from the 1950s. The growth in industry and
urban
construction, coupled with Trujillo's expropriations of
rural
land, fueled rural-urban migration and the city's growth.
The
republic's second and third largest cities, Santiago de
los
Caballeros (Santiago) and La Romana, also experienced
significant
expansion in the 1960s and the 1970s. Santiago, the center
of
traditional Hispanic culture, drew migrants from the
heavily
populated Cibao. La Romana, in the southeast, grew as a
center of
employment in the sugar industry as well as a center of
tourism
and the site of the country's first industrial free zone
(see Dominican Republic - Manufacturing
, ch. 3).
Population growth and rural-urban migration strained
cities'
capacity to provide housing and amenities. Nevertheless,
in 1981
nearly 80 percent of city dwellings had access to potable
water;
90 percent had some type of sewage disposal; and roughly
90
percent had electricity. The proportion of homes with
piped, or
easy access to, potable water, however, actually declined
by
nearly ten percentage points in the 1970s. By the
mid-1980s,
there was an estimated housing deficit of some 400,000
units. The
need was greatest in the National District. Squatter
settlements
grew in response to the scarcity of low-cost urban
housing. In
Santo Domingo these settlements were concentrated along
the Ozama
River and on the city's periphery.
Public housing initiatives dated from the late 1950s,
when
Trujillo built some housing for government employees of
moderate
means. Through the mid-1980s, a number of different
government
agencies played a role. The Technical Secretariat of the
Presidency (Secretaria Técnica de la Presidencia) designed
a
variety of projects in Santo Domingo. The Aid and Housing
Institute and the National Housing Institute bore primary
responsibility for the financing and the construction of
housing.
In general, public efforts had been hampered by extreme
decentralization in planning, coupled with equally extreme
concentration in decision making. The primary
beneficiaries of
public projects were usually from lower income groups,
although
they were not the poorest urban dwellers. Projects
targeted those
making at least the minimum wage, i.e., the lower middle
sector
or the more stable segments of the working class.
Data as of December 1989
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