Ecapag OKs municipal sewerage plan

Ecuadorian waterworks concession regulator Ecapag has approved a request from Guayaquil city mayor Jaime Nebot for the municipality to partially take over sewerage operations, local press reported. Ecapag will transfer operations in three high-density population areas in the port city's north, where Ecapag or its concessionaire Interagua have yet to plan or finance service works. Some 165,000 residents live in the three areas that currently lack sewerage service. The municipality plans to invest US$32mn in these areas, US$8mn of which would come from city coffers and US$24mn in loans from local and/or international banks, or multilateral lending agencies such as the Andean Development Corporation (CAF). Interagua picked up a 30-year concession in 2001 to provide potable water and sewerage services. Ecapag had been the area's waterworks provider up to Interagua's takeover, and now oversees the concession.