Neiba

The Dominican city of Neiba, also written as Neyba, is the head municipality of the Baoruco province, on the southwestern part of the country. Neiba, or Naiva, was the original Taíno name of the Yaque del Sur river. Population The municipality had, in 2002, a total population of 36,511: 19,023 men and 17,488 women. The urban population was 66.93% of the total population. In this numbers are included the population of El Palmar municipal district, that is part of the municipality.The population of the city of Neiba without the municipal district was 27,105. History The city of Neiba was founded in 1735; before that date, there were some people living here, raising cattle. After the Dominican independence from Haiti, in 1844, Neiba became a municipality of the old Azua province. Several battles were fought near Neiba during the Dominican-Haitian War, including the first fight of that war: La Fuente del Rodeo. In 1881, with the creation of the old Barahona province, Neiba was made part of these new province. When the Baoruco province was created in 1943, Neiba became the head municipality of the province. Geography Neiba is in the Hoya de Enriquillo or Neiba Valley, near the eastern end of the Lake Enriquillo. The Sierra de Neiba mountain range is just to the north of the city, and covers the northern half of the municipality. The southwestern part of the municipality, close to the lake Enriquillo, is below sea level. Neiba is at 230 km (140 mi) to the west of Santo Domingo. The average temperature in the city is 27.9°C and the average rainfall is 655.5 mm but it rains in only 45.4 days. Neiba has the municipality of Galván to the east, the Independencia province to the south, the municipality of Villa Jaragua to the west and the San Juan province to the north. There are few small rivers, like Las Marías, Panzo, Don Juan and El Manguito. Neiba has a total area of 282.3 km2 (109.0 sq mi); without its municipal district, its area is 203.8 km2 (78.7 sq mi). It has only one municipal district (a subdivision of a municipality): El Palmar. Climate Neiba has a subtropical steppe/semi-arid hot climate (Köppen climate classification : BSh). The climate on the mountains of the Sierra de Neiba, where there are some rainforests, is cooler and more wet. The average amount of rainfall for the year in the city is 520.2 mm (20.5 in). Most rains fall during the end of summer. The month with the most precipitation on average is May with 109.7 mm (4.3 in) of rainfall, followed by October with 74.3 mm (2.9 in). The driest season is winter. The month with the least rainfall on average is January with an average of 8.1 mm (0.3 in) and the second is February with 13.7 mm (0.5 in). Neiba is in a hot region; the average temperature for the year is 27.5 °C (82 °F). The warmest months, on average, are July and August with an average temperature of 28.8 °C (83.8 °F). The coolest month on average is January, with an average temperature of 25.5 °C (77.9 °F). Economy Farming is the only economic activity in the municipality, except for some very small industries; some important products are grapes, plantain, sugar cane (mostly in the El Palmar municipal district) and coffee (on the Sierra de Neiba). References