the rivers yaque del sur river and the rio blanco, and las placetas with 87 mw, involving an interbasin transfer from the rio bao to the rio jaguá the two first plants were under construction in 2008. the detailed share for the different sources is as follows: source installed capacity (mw) share (%) steam turbines 606.2 17.9% gas turbines 572.7 16.9% combined cycle 804 23.7% fuel oil engines 912 26.9% diesel oil engines 30 0.9% hydroelectricity 469.3 13.8% source: electricity superintendence statistics, 2006 legal and institutional framework legal framework the present water law, no. 5852 passed in 1962 and modified by laws 281, 238, and 431, established the main aspects of the legal framework for water resources management in the dr, including: (i) water as a public domain (meaning that ownership of water either resides with land owners or is public), (ii) water use concessions system, (iii) prioritization of municipal water use, (iv) pollution of water ban, and (v) participation of users in water resources management. the water law ties water rights to land ownership or public service providers and establish a limited private property right of water, only for water originating in owner's land such as springs and rain water. in addition, law no. 6 of 1965 created the national institute for water resources (indrhi), the national water authority, assigning it functions at three levels: (i) policy development and planning at the constitutional (normative) level; (ii) water rights administration, regulation enforcement and hydrological services at the organizational level; and (iii) water use for the irrigation system at the operational level. institutional framework the dominican water resource institute – indrhi, under the ministry of the environment, is responsible for managing water and related resources as well as designing, implementing, monitoring and evaluating programs, projects and activities aimed at controlling and regulating surface and groundwater use. indrhi collaborates with other sectoral institutions such as: (i) the state secretariat for agriculture and the dominican agriculture institute, (ii) the water supply and sanitation "institute" inapa, a utility operating in small towns and rural areas, and regional water and sanitation utilities in the cities of santo domingo, santiago, moca, puerto plata and romana, (iii) the ministry of public health, and (iv) the dominican electricity corporation. government strategy the dominican republic's government is in the process of designing a new legal and institutional framework for water resources management. in particular, the government is drafting a new general water law and water supply and sanitation law after various previous attempts. the development of the legal and institutional framework for integrated water resources management will depend greatly on these laws. international agreements the dominican republic and haiti signed the treaty of peace, friendship and arbitration on 20 february 1929, which included an agreement on the border definition and the water sharing of several rivers such as the artibonite river, pedernalis and massacre rivers. both parties agreed not to construct any works that would change the course or flow of any shared rivers. the basin is managed by the ‘service des ressources en eau’ (snre) in haiti and by the ‘instituto nacional de recursos hídricos’ (indrhi) in the dominican republic. both entities are endowed with capable human resources although financial means are scarce, especially in haiti. basin disputes have mostly taken root because of complex economic, social and political reasons, rather than because of a lack of support or coordination by both technical areas. financial aspects water users fees according to the food and agriculture organization, water fees are too low to meet maintenance and operation requirements for hydraulic infrastructure. for instance, cost recovery for water and sanitation is minimal. average tariffs are moderate at us$0.21 per cubic meter for water and us$0.07 per cubic meter for sewerage. in addition, collection rates for water supply and sanitation are extremely low at only 28%. as a result of moderate tariffs and very low collection rates, according to a who estimate in 1998, households paid on average only us$0.50 per month for water and us$0.09 per month for sewerage. not surprisingly, the regional water and sewer companies and inapa (the national water and sewerage authority) rely largely on transfers from the central budget to fund their operations. the existing schemes lack transparency and efficiency in the use of subsidies. the situation is similar for irrigation services were annual fees varies from us$4.75/ha in some regions to us$24/ha in other regions. water costs for a farmer only represent 0.21 to 0.58% of total production cost. operation and maintenance expenditure in indrhi's irrigation districts for 1997 was us$6.24 million (average u.s. $35/ha.) while returns (income for water fees) was only 13.8% of this value. investment according to the food and agriculture organization, annual government investment in water resources and irrigation infrastructure is in the order of us$100 million. indrhi's budget in 2001 was rd$930 million (about us$26 million), which was mainly focused on irrigation works despite indrhi responsibilities for other water resources management responsibilities such as water quality and groundwater management. environmental issues water related risks upper watershed degradation, primarily in the form of soil erosion, has significant downstream effects. erosion rates have been estimated at four times those of 1980. across the dominican republic, sedimentation has reduced reservoir capacity by some 10-25 percent, with important economic effects for the hydropower industry (assuming a loss of hydropower generation of a mere 20 percent, the cost of dam siltation only in hydropower generation lost would exceed us$10 million per year). in addition, watershed degradation increases the costs of maintaining other water systems, such as irrigation channels and water supply infrastructure, and it affects coastal water quality. high turbidity from land-based sediments prevents reefs from forming in most of the dominican coast. the dominican republic is exposed to a number of natural hazards, such as hurricanes, storms, floods, drought, earthquakes, and fires. the destructive force of these phenomena can be enormous - in 1998 hurricane georges caused economic losses estimated at us$2,193 (14 percent of gross national income), and 235 deaths. in particular, climate shocks have included a dramatic increase in the frequency of major weather events over the past forty years, with 491 recorded major weather events during the previous decade, as compared to 126 from 1960 to 1969. flooding has emerged as the most common recorded disaster during the 1990s, replacing fires for the first time in nearly fifty years. alarmingly, flooding is mostly due to non-extreme weather events. out of the recorded 464 major flooding events between 1966 and 2000, only 33 were caused by hurricanes or tropical storms, while the overwhelming majority of flooding was caused by precipitation during the rainy season. potential climate change effects global climate change is expected to induce permanent climate shocks to the caribbean region, which will include sea level rise, higher surface air and sea temperatures, extreme weather events (such as tropical storms and hurricanes), and more frequent and more severe "el niño-like" conditions. demographic growth accelerated environmental degradation, deforestation, and lack of mitigation measures will intensify the effect of disasters in the future. in terms of climate change effects on water resources, and according to the dominican republic's first communication, it is expected a great decrease in spatial distribution of rainfall, and total runoff for the year 2100, demonstrating a structural change that intensifies the transition from the most humid zones to the driest and an expansion of the areas of the country that are historically the driest. ongoing programs and initiatives in may 2008 the world bank has approved a us$80 million loan to restore and strengthen irrigation, electricity, water, and sanitation infrastructure damaged by tropical storms olga and noel, enhance critical infrastructure to reduce future storm-related effects, and strengthen basic capacity for future risk management in indrhi and cdeee.