Honduras News - Daily News about Honduras

Financial sources must be confirmed in order for Honduras’ government to select and begin building the first of two new reservoirs for capital Tegucigalpa, national water and sewage authority Sanaa planning official Pedro Ortiz told BNamericas.

Initial steps for the project have been taken with certain Nordic countries through the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (Cabei), as well as French company Degremont for the construction of a potable water plant, and another French company for the construction of conduction lines, Ortiz said.

However, Honduras has faced difficulties in acquiring the necessary finance for the project due to a limit on how much debt it can assume, stemming from a previous agreement with the World Bank, the official added.

In order for the project to be approved, it has to be considered a “priority project,” and done through a concessionary loan, Ortiz said.

Works could be done through a 20-year concession, although the exact model to be used has yet to be confirmed, he added.

The government must still decide on the location of the reservoir and treatment plant, for which construction works are expected to kick off this year and take about three years to complete, BNamericas reported previously.

Studies have been finished on a package consisting of a 370m-long dam wall, treatment plant, conduction lines, storage tank and pumping station that would supply 1m3/s and 82Mm3/y of water to capital residents at an estimated cost of US$230mn, including the cost of land acquisitions, previous reports indicated.

However, the difficulty with this plant is that it would involve construction in residential areas, causing possible social conflict with residents, who would have to be moved out of the areas and compensated.

A larger 1,000m-long dam wall, together with a treatment plant and other works, could be built along the same waterway at an estimated cost of US$240mn. This reservoir would supply only 53Mm3 of water per year, but would be located in an uninhabited area of the city.

While this project - for which studies are still in the prefeasibility phase - would provide less potable water at a slightly higher cost, it would cause less social conflict, because residents would not have to be relocated and compensated.

Once one of these reservoir packages is built and operating, works are planned to build another reservoir and water plant lying further out from the city.

Supplying additional potable water to the capital is an urgent priority, in order to prepare for periods of drought.