With a controversial plan to dredge parts of four Amazonian rivers in Peru stalled, critics say the country should concentrate instead on formal licensing and inspection of the country’s varied flotilla of passenger and cargo vessels. (Photo © Jeremy Snyder)
A controversial waterway project that calls for dredging four Amazonian rivers in Peru was suspended this month, but government officials say the plan remains on the table. Cohidro, the Chinese-Peruvian concession holder, said Dec. 19 that it could not fully gauge the environmental impacts of dredging riverbed sediments because the Ministry of Transportation and Communication (MTC) had not provided a report on river-bottom concentrations of toxic substances. On Jan. 19, Senace, the government agency responsible for reviewing Cohidro’s environmental impact study, accepted the consortium’s request to “desist” from that review. The MTC would like the project to continue, however, and is in talks with the company, Minister of Transportation and Communication Edmer Trujillo Mori told foreign journalists on Jan. 23. The US$70 million project, called Hidrovía Amazónica, is meant to improve navigation on the Amazon River and three of its tributaries—the Ucayali, Huallaga and Marañón—during... [Log in to read more]
