Mexico, US kick off construction of wastewater treatment plant

The Mexican and US governments kicked off construction of the San Antonio de los Buenos wastewater treatment plant, which is part of a US$500mn binational water project. 

The project was developed to treat Tijuana’s wastewaters, which end up in San Diego Bay and have caused several conflicts among border communities for many years, Mexican daily La Jornada reported.

Once the plant starts operations it will have the capacity to process 800l/s of wastewater, which is equivalent to the capacity of San Diego’s South Bay WTP. The US ambassador to Mexico, Ken Salazar, said his country would destine US$300mn to improve the latter facility, according to the report.

The new San Antonio de los Buenos WTP will replace an old plant that treated 25% of Tijuana’s wastewaters before it stopped operating in 2019 due to multiple problems.

The works were initially meant to be tendered but Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador later decided to hand the project to the army and finance it with public funds, with its completion set for September, La Jornada reported.