Nicaragua lawmakers approve creating state dredging company for San Juan river works

Nicaragua’s national assembly approved on Wednesday the creation of a state company to carry out dredging and clean-up works on the San Juan river to guarantee navigability. 

According to local media reports, lawmakers passed the bill at the request of President Daniel Ortega. 

The public and decentralized entity will carry out the works along the river, which runs for 200km from the Cocibolca lake to the Caribbean Sea. 

The Empresa Nicaragüense del Dragado del Río San Juan will be under the stewardship of the transport and infrastructure ministry (MTI) and have technical, administrative and financial autonomy. 

According to news outlet Prensa Latina, during the debate of the bill, the president of the production, economy and budget committee of the assembly, Wálmaro Gutiérrez, said the area of Río San Juan is an important development hub so it was imperative to create an entity with legal and operational capacity to deal with those tasks and promote the region’s development. 

With the approval, previous legislation that designated national ports company EPN to carry out the dredging work was repealed.