Mexicali, Baja California, Oct. 21, 2002 -- Baja California Governor Eugenio Elorduy and North American Development Bank (NADB) Managing Director Raul Rodriguez today signed an $18 million grant agreement for the wastewater collection system rehabilitation and improvement project in Tijuana, Baja California.
This grant is being made available through the Bank's EPA-funded Border Environment Infrastructure Fund (BEIF).
In a meeting in the governor's offices and in the presence of Thomas Huetteman, Chief of the Southern California Office, Water Division of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 9; Miguel Avila Niebla, general manager of the Tijuana utility, Comision Estatal de Servicios Publicos de Tijuana (CESPT); and other NADB officials, Governor Elorduy and Rodriguez signed the agreement that will allow Tijuana to access the grant funds for construction of its wastewater project.
The $42 million project consists of 50 individual projects to rehabilitate 130,000 meters (426,500 ft) of wastewater collection lines to be carried out by CESPT over a period of four years. The Border Environment Cooperation Commission certified the project in October 2001.
"This is the second project in Tijuana and the fourth in Baja California to receive financing from the Bank," commented Raul Rodriguez. "To date, the Bank has approved more than US$65 million in grants and loans for the construction of environmental infrastructure in this state, and expects to authorize additional financing for at least two other projects within the next six months."
Improvements to the Tijuana sewer system will greatly reduce the amount of untreated wastewater currently discharged into the Tijuana River and Pacific Ocean, thus improving wastewater treatment quality on both sides of the border, as well as providing a healthier environment for residents.
Tijuana received two NADB loans and a BEIF grant totaling US$22.67 million for the construction of a parallel conveyance system and the rehabilitation and expansion of the San Antonio de los Buenos Wastewater Treatment Plant. The parallel system was completed in November 2000, and work on the treatment plant is 44% complete.
Established in 1997, the BEIF is a grant program administered by the NADB to fund and facilitate environmental infrastructure projects throughout the U.S.-Mexico border region. EPA provided an initial contribution of $170 million for water and wastewater projects with an additional $166 million added to the fund by EPA in the past three years.
For more information on the NADB, visit www.nadb.org.
The North American Development Bank, created under the auspices of NAFTA, is a financial institution established and capitalized in equal parts by the United States and Mexico for the purpose of financing environmental infrastructure projects along their common border. As a pioneer institution in its field, the Bank is working to develop integrated, sustainable and fiscally responsible projects with broad community support in a framework of close cooperation and coordination between Mexico and the United States.
