Bogota may terminate BAS wastewater plant contract

Bogota mayor Antanas Mockus is studying the possibility of ending Bogotana de Aguas y Saneamiento's (BAS) contract to operate the Salitre wastewater plant, El Tiempo reported. The city could save up to 50% of what it spends to operate the plant monthly, the paper quoted Mockus as saying. According to El Tiempo, the plant's monthly operating cost is 7.5bn pesos (US$2.59mn). Mockus said he would request an extra budgetary allocation of 230bn pesos to liquidate the contract if BAS does not present a counter offer. For their part, the concessionaire's director general Jean-Claude Cournarie told BNamericas they plan to submit an alternative offer to city authorities in the coming days that would entail the city buying the plant and BAS continuing with an operations and maintenance contract. "This would prove more economical for the city," said Cournarie, adding that their intention is to continue in the capital. The city and BAS inked the 30-year contract in 1994. The US$100mn plant, which began operations in 2000 and serves some 2 million residents, is one of two - the second has yet to be built - that fall under the capital's plans to cleanup the Bogota river.