Peru readies sanitation projects for US$800mn

ProInversión, Peru’s investment promotion agency, plans to auction or advance sanitation projects, including PPPs, for US$799mn in the next 16 months.

“These are projects that have varying degrees of progress and are aimed at … closing the infrastructure gap,” a ProInversión official, requesting anonymity, told BNamericas.

According to the national infrastructure plan, 28.8bn soles (US$7.67bn) are needed to fill the short-term, five-year, infrastructure gap.

Of the four sanitation projects approved in July 2019, only the 630mn-sol Titicaca wastewater treatment plant was tendered. It will tackle the sewage discharge problem into Lake Titicaca (pictured).

Construction started in April and is carried out by the Fypasa Construcciones consortium and Operadora de Ecosistemas, according to the economy and finance ministry.

The ProInversión source said the first phase will demand 200mn soles.

ProInversión plans to award the Puerto Maldonado wastewater plant in the fourth quarter. Co-financed with US$55mn from the state, the plant will serve Puerto Maldonado city and its surroundings in Tambopata province.

A US$480mn clean water project for Lima is also in the infrastructure plan, fully financed by the state. ProInversión is structuring the initial contract draft and setting a call date. Awarding is planned for 1H22.

The agency will also tender a US$172mn wastewater plant for Huancayo, El Tambo and Chilca, the Junín region, which, however, is not in the infrastructure plan.

And a fourth project that is also not in the infrastructure plan but will be tendered is the US$92mn wastewater treatment plant for Chincha province, Ica region.

Two projects will be awarded under the co-financed private initiative modality and are in the formulation stage. The declaration of interest for the projects is scheduled for the first quarter of 2022.

Former president of state utility Sedapal, Rudecindo Vega, told a radio station recently that all regions suffer sanitation problems, so projects are urgently needed.

Especially excessive delays in the preparation of technical files must be solved, he said.