General Manager presents BECC/NADB Status Report to the Governor of Tamaulipas

The Governor presided over the meeting, which was attended by Secretary of Public Works Manuel Rodriguez; Urban Development and Environment Secretary Homero De la Garza; Assistant Secretary of the Environment Heberto Cavazos, and the General Director of the Tamaulipas State Water Utility, Jaime Felipe Cano.

Maria Elena Giner was accompanied at this meeting by BECC’s Environmental Project Development Director Mario Vazquez; Regional Project Manager Laureano Alvarez; Project Manager Carlos Acevedo; and NADB Project Development Manager Andres Rangel. 

Throughout the State of Tamaulipas BECC has certified 15 projects with an estimated cost of US $623.8 million. The organization has also provided more than US $4 million in technical assistance for the development of environmental infrastructure projects and related studies. “It has been a long road with 15 years of operations and the unrelenting desire to continue assisting this state,” said Maria Elena Giner.  

She reported that BECC has in its certification pipeline 14 projects with an estimated cost of US $154 million, and highlighted two municipal solid waste projects in the Guardados de Abajo, Rancherias, and Rio Bravo communities. The total includes several water and wastewater projects in Miguel Aleman, Matamoros, Reynosa, and Rio Bravo, as well as a 54 MW wind farm project in El Porvenir. 

NADB’s Andres Rangel underscored that the Reynosa wind farm project will be the first of such type on either side of the border that is certified and funded by BECC and NADB.

BECC officer Laureano Alvarez reported that in the areas of water and wastewater collection and treatment, from the total number of applications to receive assistance from the Border Environmental Infrastructure Fund funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and administered by NADB, 12 applications have been approved in EPA’s Region 6 (which encompasses the eastern portion of the U.S.-Mexico border) for Fiscal Year 2011-2012. Nine of these projects are located in the state of Tamaulipas and have an estimated cost of US $99.5 million. “This is the first time that a Mexican border state, out of the four located within EPA’s Region 6 (Chihuahua, Coahuila, Tamaulipas, and Nuevo Leon) gets all the authorized funding,” said the BECC official, who also recognized Project Engineer Carlos Acevedo for working so hard to achieve this significant milestone.

These projects, Mr. Alvarez said, include the expansion of the Wastewater Treatment Plant No. 2 in Reynosa; the construction of a wastewater lift station in Reynosa; the disconnection of the storm water sewer from the sanitary sewage system in Nuevo Laredo; the expansion of wastewater collection services in Camargo; the construction of the West wastewater treatment plant in Matamoros; the construction of a wastewater conveyance system in Matamoros; the construction of wastewater collection and conveyance facilities in unserved areas of Matamoros; and a water distribution and wastewater collection project in Rio Bravo. 


Assistant Secretary of the Environment Heberto Cavazos presented Tamaulipas' approach with regard to the climate change program, which is part of the State Development Plan. Tamaulipas is particularly vulnerable because of its geographic situation. The official pointed out that this phenomenon must be addressed from a cross-disciplinary perspective. He said the state has contemplated the idea of creating a Sustainable Development and Climate Change Interagency Commission chaired by the Governor, to validate, advance, promote, and implement the development of programs and strategies, and to have as a major output the State Climate Action Plan (SCAP). 

Mario Vazquez said that after having completed an inventory of greenhouse gases using BECC funding, as was done with all six border states, Tamaulipas is receiving assistance for the development of its SCAP from the BECC, the Inter-American Development Bank, and the state government itself, in coordination with Mexico's National Institute of Ecology. "There is great momentum with this state to develop its SCAP and select public policies that will give rise to specific projects," he said.

In closing these proceedings, Governor Torre-Cantu acknowledged that "BECC and NADB are great allies for us in the development of projects, and public transportation is one of the needs to be addressed in this state." We must pursue this type of investments. He said we must work faster on identifying issues and implementing solutions. He called for institutional coordination with the state government in working with the municipalities.