President Luis Abinader of the Dominican Republic has recently announced the total closure of all land, sea, and air borders with neighbouring Haiti. The closure will last “until they stop their provocative actions,” he proclaimed in front of a supportive crowd.

Abinader was referring to current canal constructions along the northern Massacre River, which non-state actors are conducting with the tacit support of the Haitian government. According to Abinader, Haiti’s activity along the Massacre will divert significant levels of water away from Dominican farmland, thus impacting farmers’ livelihoods, along with the environment.

The Dominican Republic claims that the construction violates several treaties that guarantee equitable use of the river to both states. However, Haiti argues that building the canal is within its sovereignty rights, saying that the project is indispensable for alleviating drought-stricken farms which have seen an unprecedented lack of rain in recent months. Thus, the canal has become a symbol of national pride and defiance in Haiti.

“The Republic of Haiti can make sovereign decisions on the exploitation of its natural resources,” Port-au-Prince said.

These political tensions have added kindling to a fire of hostility that has burned against Haitians for decades. Since assuming the presidency in 2020, Abinader has fed this hostility by taking a strict policy stance on “irregular” Haitian migration; around 500,000 Haitians live and work in the D.R. as “irregulars.” Under his leadership, the D.R. has built a border wall and doubled Haitian deportations. The uptick in reports of forced deportations since the border closure is in line with these policies.

Additionally, the border closure’s impacts are blatantly asymmetrical, with many more Haitians than Dominican Republicans directly depending on trade and migration with their neighbour. William O’Neill, a United Nations expert on human rights in Haiti, noted that many of the nation’s essential food, medical equipment, and medicines are imported from the Dominican Republic. Restricting these supplies, which Haiti, a weak state, needs to survive, is bound to wreak havoc on an already suffering population.

To avoid “further exacerbating an already grave crisis,” O’Neill says, the Dominican Republic must allow all essential goods and forms of humanitarian assistance to be delivered to Haiti. A prompt resolution to the conflict between the nations must be found. With lives at stake, international diplomatic pressure should narrow and target the relevant tensions.

Beyond both inhabiting the island of Hispaniola, Haiti and the Dominican Republic share almost nothing in common. Night-time satellite images of the shared border reveal an economic contrast akin to North/South Korea or the delineated settlements along the Nile River, and, like the Nile, the Massacre River is a crucial enabler for local agriculture, industry, and biodiversity. Resolving the tensions surrounding those resources will be crucial to maintaining the island’s peace.