According to information from El Tiempo, the sections of the National Development Plan that give the project the green light were approved this week by the legislature. The decision, despite the lack of Senate approval, generates concern for communities and experts. It is estimated that 1,000 hectares of mangrove in the Pacific will be destroyed with this intervention.
The communities of Tribugá, one of the nine areas of Nuquí (Chocó), do not want a port. Its position makes sense: although a work of this type promises jobs, development and roads for a region that needs it, the construction of this work involves going over a territory protected by them, the Regional District of Management – Cabo Corrientes an ecosystem that not only the communities depend on thanks to artisanal fishing, the cutting and use of mangroves and ecotourism, but where they live around 8 species of mangroves, turtles nest on 971 hectares of beaches, pianguas and small mollusks that are the basis of food in the area. But yesterday the House of Representatives approved its construction.
In the middle of the debate on the National Development Plan (PND), the executive gave his yes for the articles and projects that enable the construction of the port of Tribugá. The most representative of them, article 78, which talks about the priority that the development of port infrastructure will have for the government of Iván Duque. This decision set off alarms because the only thing that would be missing for the work to become a reality would be the approval of the Senate.
If approved, a port of docks of up to 3,600 meters in length would be built, with depths between 15 and 20 meters and capacity to receive ships of up to 200,000 tons. All that, in the middle of this territory. The work, in fact, is estimated to be larger than the Port of Buenaventura Colombia also in the Pacific and one of the most massive in Latin America.
The impacts generated by these mega works have been discussed with force since November 2 last year by the residents of Nuquí and a host of organizations and institutions along with the Association of Community Councils the Riscals, Embera Indigenous Councils, hoteliers and authorities local.
Communities argued that the port “would go against ethnic and territorial visions of wellbeing and development based on the conservation of the biocultural heritage and traditional lifestyles, both keys to a local economy friendly to the environment that today In addition, it will also affect flora, fauna, and coastal and mangrove ecosystems in one of the most biodiverse and fragile regions of the planet. ” Those concerns were consigned in a manifesto with more than 50 signatures.
Source: El Tiempo
