News

Tijuana, B.C. – The Board of Directors of the North American Development Bank (NADB) and the Border Environment Cooperation Commission (BECC) approved the certification and financing of US$24.87 million for four new infrastructure projects in the U.S.-Mexico border region. The projects were approved at the Board’s semiannual meeting, held today in Tijuana, Baja California. In addition to these project approvals, advances were made on issues related to the integration of BECC and NADB into a single institution.

“First of all, we are pleased that the governments have made very significant progress with the institutional integration of these two entities. We will continue working to have an agreement on an amended charter in the near future” stated Maria de los Angeles Gonzalez Miranda, Board Chair and Head of the International Affairs Unit at Mexico’s Ministry of Finance. “We are pleased to announce approval of the first cogeneration facility that NADB and BECC helped develop. Water utilities have great potential for producing clean electricity for their own consumption that will make their costs and operations more efficient while at the same time contributing to better air quality,” she added.

The four new infrastructure projects approved today will impact more than 95,000 residents in the Mexican states of Baja California and Chihuahua, and in Arizona, on the U.S. side.

The basic urban infrastructure project located in Playas de Rosarito, Baja California, will provide first-time paving of more than 34,000 square meters of streets and other roadway improvements, replace aging water and wastewater infrastructure, and improve the public lighting system. NADB is providing a loan estimated at US$16.25 million, of which approximately US$4.1 million will be used for the new infrastructure and equipment, and the rest will be used to refinance an existing NADB loan on more favorable terms.

The project approved in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, consists of the design, construction and operation of a 1.35-Megawatt (MW) cogeneration facility and the acquisition of equipment and improvements to the sludge management system at the South Wastewater Treatment Plant. This project is anticipated to produce approximately 7.43 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of electricity in the first year of operation or the equivalent to the annual energy consumption of over 1,000 households. It is expected to save between 40 and 50 percent of the electricity required to operate the plant, which currently consumes more than 16.8 GWh of electricity a year. NADB will be providing a US$3.5 million loan for this project.

Two other projects benefiting Arizona were also approved—a wastewater treatment project in Willcox and a water main project in Nogales. The City of Willcox will receive a US$4.62 million grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) through the Border Environment Infrastructure Fund (BEIF), which is administered by NADB, to improve the wastewater treatment process for the existing plant and bring it into compliance with all applicable state laws and regulations.

The City of Nogales, Arizona will receive a grant of up to US$500,000 through NADB’s Community Assistance Program (CAP) for the replacement of the Crawford Street water main, which will provide access to safe and reliable drinking water services, directly benefiting 330 residential connections, as well as eliminate service interruptions and reduce water losses.

Since 1994, BECC has certified 251 projects and NADB has provided more than US$2.55 billion in loans and grants to finance 212 of those projects, which are benefitting more than 15 million residents in communities on both sides of the border.