US consultancy completes Andean water study

<a href=www.latintrade.com>LatinTrade.com

04/23/2003 - Source: Business News Americas (BNamericas.com) (BNamericas.com) - US-based Armentrout Roebuck Matheny Consulting Group (ARMCG) has submitted a finalized definitional mission to the US Trade & Development Agency (TDA) on water-related projects in Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela, a consultancy source told BNamericas.

The TDA will now review the report, and decide whether to fund grants that would move certain drinking-water and sewerage projects forward, the official said. The consultancy recommended a series of grants after analyzing projects presented by government agencies in the three countries.

COLOMBIA

Ranking the project a "high priority," the consultancy recommends TDA fund a US$482,000 grant to support Colombian water regulator CRA's water loss improvements program. The grant would finance labor and travel costs, according to the report, a copy of which was obtained by BNamericas.

The project would implement water and wastewater sector improvements designed to reduce water loss (which reaches 40%), and introducing tariff increases to fund the changes.

ECUADOR

Contingent on project financing, ARMCG also recommends the TDA support an US$884,000 feasibility study (which includes a 35% cost-share) for the country's eastern rivers, designed to provide drinking water and electrical energy to Ecuador capital Quito.

The eastern rivers project carries a US$614mn price tag, and entails developing 67km of water piping, 42km of tunnels, three dams with storage volume of 115M cu. m, two drinking water plants and four hydroelectric generating facilities with 170MW of capacity.

"ARMCG's review indicates that this project is a major priority of the government and can be funded," reads the report.

VENEZUELA

The consultancy also recommends the TDA support a US$452,000 grant to study development of the Lake Maracaibo wastewater treatment plant project in western Venezuela's Zulia state.

This project calls for a US$103mn wastewater treatment plant and US$2mn in associated piping designed to treat waste that is currently dumped untreated in the lake.

In addition, the report recommends TDA move forward with studies on two projects managed by waterworks sector administrator Hidroven that were approved from an August 2000 definitional mission conducted by ARMCG. The first entails a US$7.71mn project to modify the Araya aqueduct, separating it from the Turimiquire pipeline system that supplies Nueva Esparta state.

The consultancy studied related plans for a new pipeline to the Cariaco Gulf and a 10km submarine pipeline across the gulf to the Araya peninsula in its 2000 report. Project sponsors are asking for US$93,000 to conduct studies for the revised work.

Separately, the consultancy recommends the TDA deliver a previously-approved US$173,000 grant for studies on a 600 l/s wastewater treatment plant. The US$22.1mn project, which also involves expanding collection and pumping stations, would diminish contamination along the Tuy, Aragua and Acuiferos rivers as well as the Valencia lagoon.