Spain Providing $164 Million for Safe Drinking Water Projects in Latin America

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Seven Latin American countries will benefit from contributions approved on the 15th of October by the Spanish government amounting to 117.2 million Euros ($164 million) for projects providing safe drinking water and improving aqueducts and sanitation.

The contributions are intended for projects in Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico and the Dominican Republic and will be managed by the Water and Sanitation Cooperation Fund of Spain’s AECID international development agency. There will also be a complementary contribution of 12.9 million Euros ($18 million) to finance new projects to be carried out in cooperation with the Inter-American Development Bank.

About 120 million people lack access systems for potable water and basic health services in Latin America and the Caribbean, according to figures released earlier this year at the 2nd Latin American Sanitation Conference.

Related news: Guatemala: US$ 100 million from Spain and the IDB to improve water and sanitation services, Source News, 21 January 2010.

EFE Source : Herald Tribune, 18 October 2010.

Safe use of wastewater in agriculture offers multiple benefits

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Recycling urban wastewater and using it to grow food crops can help mitigate water scarcity problems and reduce water pollution, but the practice is not being as widely implemented as it should, according to a new UN food and agriculture organization (FAO) report [1]. The FAO has called for governments to increase the amount of treated wastewater being used for irrigation purposes as this will reduce costs for farmers and cities and improved water quality.

The FAO report used case studies from Spain and Mexico to test methodologies for cost-benefit and cost-effective analyses of wastewater reuse projects. The Mexico case studies were drawn from three regions:

• Mexico City & Tula Valley
• Guanajuato City & La Purísima irrigation module
• Durango City & Guadalupe Victoria irrigation module

“The case studies in this report show that safely harnessing wastewater for food production can offer a way to mitigate competition between cities and agriculture for water in regions of growing water scarcity,” said Pasquale Steduto, Deputy Director of FAO’s Land and Water Division. “In the right settings, it can also help to deal with urban wastewater effluent and downstream pollution.”

[1] Winpenny, J. … [et al.] (2010). The wealth of waste : the economics of wastewater use in agriculture. (FAO water reports ; 35). Rome, Italy, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). xv, 129 p. Download full report

Related news:

• Mexico: farmers fear loss of “free fertilizer” when wastewater treatment plant is built, WASH news Latin America and Caribbean, 02 Aug 2010
• World Water Week: Urbanization, Irrigation, Global Food Security (medicalnewstoday.com)

Source: FAO, 06 Sep 2010

Honduras, Tegucigalpa: water authority improving water network with Spanish, Japanese donations

Honduran national water authority Sanaa is replacing 1,500km of damaged pipelines with a donation from the Spanish government, Sanaa spokesperson Allan Aragón told BNamericas. The initiative has a budget of 14mn lempiras (US$735,702) and will be carried out in two neighbourhoods in capital Tegucigalpa. Sanaa is also carrying out key initiatives to improve Tegucigalpa’s water network with a US$40mn donation from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

Read full article on: BNamericas.com [subscription site], 09 Apr 2010

Uruguay: OSE investing US$15mn to expand water services to small towns and schools

Uruguay’s state-owned water utility OSE is investing US$15mn to make sure all rural areas have potable water services by end-2011, the government said in a release. The Spanish international cooperation agency for development (AECID) will cover half of the cost, with OSE covering the other 50%.

Read full article on: BNamericas.com [subscription site], 12 Apr 2010

Nicaragua: Spain provides US$12mn loan for Boaco waterworks

Nicaraguan national water and sewerage utility Enacal has received a US$12mn loan from the Spanish government to improve potable water and sewerage conditions in Boaco department’s capital of the same name/ Potable water works include construction of an 187,000m3 reservoir, a wastewater treatment plant with a capacity to treat 117l/s, and a 1,050m pipeline connecting the plant to storage tanks.

Read the full article on BNamericas.com [subscription site], 07 Dec 2009

Nicaragua: Govt, Spain spending US$11.5mn on Boaco water, sewerage project

The Nicaraguan and Spanish governments will jointly invest 8.5mn euros (US$11.5mn) to carry out a potable water and sewerage project in the former country’s Boaco municipality. [The] potable water distribution grid and a storage tank [will be completed first at a cost of ] 5.5mn euros [followed by] the sewerage component [which will cost] of 3mn euros. Expected to be completed in 18 months, works are scheduled to start in June [2009] and be [carried out] by national water utility Enacal. The project will benefit 35,000 residents.

Source: BNamericas [subscription site], 14 May 2009

Bolivia: Spain approves US$80mn grant for water, sanitation projects

The Spanish government has approved a US$80mn donation to Bolivia’s environment and water ministry for potable water and sewerage projects [and the construction of water intake systems], Bolivian government news agency ABI reported. [The package is part of a water and sanitation development plan that requires US$500mn].

[An earlier report] in local paper El Informador reported that Bolivian authorities [sought] financial support in Spain to cover the cost of a series of water projects [worth] US$ 150mn. Germany, Canada and Sweden [had] already offered their support to carry them out. [Spain has denied an announcement made by President Evo Morales of Bolivia, that it would give some 700mn euros out of of the 1.5bn-euro Spanish water fund to support projects in the country].

Source: BNamericas [subscription site], 19 Mar 2009 ; BNamericas, 02 Mar 2009 ; BNamericas, 12 Mar 2009