Recent reporting on the Pasto Mocoa Highway have included video of the actual highway that is currently one of the most dangerous roads in Colombia, referred to by some as the “Trampoline of Death.” As an IIRSA priority project with funding in preparation by the IDB, a proposed 50 km rerouting of the section between between San Francisco and Mocoa will pass through the 35,00 ha Upper Mocoa Forest Reserve with impacts on indigenous and farmer communities in the affected region. Among other impacts, the highway improvement is expected to increase investment in mining as indicated by the estimated increase in mining related traffic from zero vehicles to 180 vehicles daily.
By means of this bulletin, the BICECA project of Bank Information Center, seeks to bring news and relevant current information about particular aspects of projects and policies related with the Initiative for the Integration of Regional Infrastructure in South America (IIRSA). This publication is addressed to a diverse public of civil society organizations, native groups, students, academics and other people or entities that follows the different policies and projects of international financial institutions related the IIRSA project.
IDB Loan Approval Set for early 2009: The $200 million road project in Putumayo, Colombia is an anchor project for the IIRSA Amazonas Corridor and will unlock commercial traffic between the ports of Tumaco and Belem, as well as between Bogota and Quito.
Concerned parties threaten to file a court case against the Egyptian government if they do not receive satisfactory answers.
The World Bank’s support for the $15.5 million feasibility studies continues to raise questions about the Bank’s application of its operational safeguard policies on the project.
Civil society in the Middle East demands that the Bank give full consideration to viable alternatives to the costly project.