The Ocean Cleanup and Dominican Republic Announce 400-Meter Replacement for Ozama River Interceptor

The Ocean Cleanup and the Government of the Dominican Republic jointly announced on August 16, 2026 that Interceptor 004 in Santo Domingo's Río Ozama — the Caribbean's first Interceptor, deployed in 2020 — will be replaced by a new 400-meter barrier, The Ocean Cleanup's largest installation to date. The original unit intercepted more than 300 tonnes of waste before reaching the sea, but seasonal blooms of invasive water hyacinth repeatedly overwhelmed it, depleting river oxygen, killing fish, and entangling the floating pedestrian bridge connecting to the capital. The redesigned barrier will span the Ozama in two overlapping sections while keeping the channel open to marine traffic, and is scheduled for deployment in early 2027. The retired original Interceptor will be repurposed as an environmental education classroom. The replacement is framed as the opening move of The Ocean Cleanup's 30 Cities Program, which targets the 30 most polluting urban river systems worldwide with the goal of preventing roughly a third of global river-borne ocean plastic by 2030.