Copyright 1994 InterPress Service, all rights reserved.
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MONTEVIDEO, June 1 (IPS) - The ''hydrovia'' waterway project, planned for the Paraguay-Parana rivers of the Southern Cone, has been given the green light by the countries concerned but now faces opposition from environmentalists.
This project is one of the largest engineering works planned for the physical integration of the Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR) - along a bridge over the River Plate to link Buenos Aires in Argentina with Colonia in Uruguay.
The 3,442 kilometre river route will link the ports of Caceres in Bolivia with Nueva Palmira in Uruguay, following massive engineering works.
The river will have to be dragged and large extensions marked with buoys. Preliminary surveys will be completed by 1996, and construction was expected to take a further nine years after that
Vessels of up to 100 metres in length can currently sail as far up river as Rosario, 453 kilometres into the hydrovia, and smaller vessels can reach as far as Asuncion in Paraguay. Further upriver, passage becomes far more difficult and cargoes have to be loaded and unloaded repeatedly from shallow barges to get past the rapids and narrow straits.
Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay recently agreed on international laws to govern the waterway, following 25 years of negotiations.
''The hydrovia already exists. Navigability can be improved, but the regulation of river transport, which is the most important element, is already settled,'' an official of the Uruguayan Ministry of Transport said.
Both the governments and the private sector are now working on arrangements to drag the river bed, dynamite rocky sections and put the buoys in place, allowing deep draught vessels passage 24 hours a day all year round.
Private transport concerns want the governments to bring the work forward ''at least to allow better conditions for navigation,'' said Horacio Lopez of the Argentine Horamar shipping company.
Shipowners and operators claim that the project will benefit the 17 million people living along the river banks, but local environmentalists see the project in a different light.
Ecologists from the five nations involved are opposing the project, arguing that the increased flow of the Paraguay river could reduce the water level of the Mato Grosso Pantanal, one of the world's greatest wetlands, home to 650 bird and 300 fish and mammal species.
''The indigenous peoples of Mato Grosso, Santa Cruz and Paraguay would be drowned once again by destructive ''progress,'' the outlying areas of the riverside cities will be flooded and people will lose their homes, livings and even their lives,'' wrote Danilo Anton in the Uruguayan magazine ''Tierra Amiga.''
The results of viability studies, including an environmental impact assessment - the essential prerequisites for seeking international credit - will be made public in September this year.
The Internave Engenharia consultancy, estimated that the preparation and maintenance of the hydrovia, along with improvements to its 31 ports would cost around 561 million dollars over the next nine years.
The same report estimated that some 1.1 to 1.3 billion dollars would have to be spent on the river highway over the next 25 years.
Meanwhile, Jan van Hoogstraten, president of the River Plate Delta Transport Commission claimed that just 30 million dollars would improve nearly 3,000 kilometres of the hydrovia, while this ammount would be enough for only 30 kilometres of motorway.
Argentine President of the Federal Hydrovia Committee, Horacio Gutnisky, said the money aimed at the viability and environmental impact studies represent ''50 percent of that needed to improve navegation on the Hydrovia.''
The Inter American Development Bank warned that no funds would be forthcoming unless the environmental impact study found the effects of the plan would be, at the most, ''moderate.''
Meanwhile, all the nations involved have reasons to promote improved river navigation.
Bolivia and Paraguay presently have no direct access to the sea, a factor which greatly increases the transportation cost of their products, and the same is true of western Brazil.
Argentina would like to reduce transport costs from its rich cereal producing area around Rosario, a large port on the Parana river.
Meanwhile, Uruguay would like to develop a great centre in Nueva Palmira on the hydrovia, establishing its position as the main port of the Southern Cone. (END/IPS/tra-so/mj/dg/sm/mk95)
Origin: Amsterdam/MERCOSUR-TRANSPORT/
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