Controversy continues by the dredging of the port

Jaime Nebot

The issue of dredging the Rocky area called Los goles in the channel of access to the port of Guayaquil continues causing controversy between the President of the Republic, Rafael Correa, and the Mayor of the city, Jaime Nebot.

Last Tuesday, while Nebot made public that two companies presented their proposals to update studies on the dredging to eleven meters, Correa sent a letter to the municipality through which he ratified the position that the Council is responsible for the maintenance dredging of the channel to 9.6 meters.

The President said in the document that to dredge the channel of the port access should be to modify the contract signed between the Port Authority of Guayaquil (APG) and the concessionary Contecon, according to the parameters of the official document submitted on September 10 by APG to the Municipality.

Also the document established that the municipality had to dredge to 9.6 m in depth and did not mention the position of Nebot do dredge to 11 m.

The other two observations that are mentioned in the letter, are that to perform the dredging  the municipality must agree on rates of contribution to the private ports and apply for an environmental permit to the Ministry of the Environment.

The mayor said that “when the concessionaire (…), through the port authority, which will perform the dredging, arrives at 9.60 and the work passes through a technical, qualitative and quantitative audit, (…)” then it should go from 9.60 to 11 meters at low tide”.