Belo Horizonte, IDB to discuss cleanup program financing

Officials from Brazilian city Belo Horizonte's river basin remediation and recovery program Drenurbs and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) are scheduled to meet next month to discuss terms of a loan for the program, a Drenurbs official told BNamericas. Belo Horizonte is seeking US$46mn from the IDB for the US$77mn program that will be carried out in eight hydrographical basins. Works will include rain drainage, sewerage, erosion and river bank stabilization projects, and dredging. The official said that although bidding rules for the program's first tenders had been expected last month, they should be published in the coming weeks. Drenurbs will benefit 980,000 residents and 140km of waterways, into which untreated sewage and waste is dumped. The program falls under the city's urban drainage master plan - Plan Diretor de Drenaje Urbano - that kicked off in 1999. Belo Horizonte has some 2.2 million residents.