Reynosa, Tamaulipas, Oct. 15, 2002 -- Governor Tomas Yarrington and Raul Rodriguez, Managing Director of the North American Development Bank (NADB), joined Reynosa Municipal President Serapio Cantu, in an inaugural ceremony today to flip the switch and officially start up Pump Station No.4.
The pump station, which is part of Reynosa's Comprehensive Sanitation Project that will provide service to 123 subdivisions in the city and benefit 230,000 residents, was implemented with a US$1.4 million grant made available through the bank's EPA-funded Border Environment Infrastructure Fund (BEIF).
The pumping capacity of the newly inaugurated station is 2.91 million gallons a day (MGD), which will increase the city's wastewater pumping capacity and allow the local water utility, Comision Municipal de Agua Potable y Alcantarillado de Reynosa (COMAPA), to expand its sewer system to unserved subdivisions.
Operating this pump will also eliminate sewage spills into La Escondida lagoon during the rainy season. As a part of this ceremony, the new equipment for desilting and cleaning sewer lines was also delivered to the utility.
"The operation of this pump station marks an important milestone in improving Reynosa's environment," commented Raul Rodriguez. "To date, the bank has contributed more than US$7 million in grants for the execution of this and other complementary works and expects to provide additional grants and loans over the next two years to rehabilitate, expand and build three wastewater treatment plants and other related works."
The project, certified in 1998 by the Border Environment Cooperation Commission (BECC), is estimated to cost a total of US$83.4 million, US$33.5 million of which will be covered by grants from the NADB.
Other sources of funding include the Mexican federal water commission, Comision Nacional del Agua (CNA) and COMAPA's own resources. 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.
