Monday, January 2, 2012
Bank
Approves Millions for USA-Mexico Border Area Projects
Frontera
NorteSur
The Board of Directors of the North American Development
Bank (NADB) has approved more than US$136 million in new financing for environmentally-related initiatives on both sides of
the US-Mexico border. In an announcement last month, the San Antonio-based bank listed four new projects that will receive
NADB loans and grants.
More than half of the new money, or a US$88.5 million loan, is set aside for a 20-megawatt
solar energy park that will generate electricity for approximately 3,500 homes in the Tucson metropolitan area. The loan recipient
will be the privately-owned SunEdison utility company.
Bank directors approved a US$11 million loan for the city
of Mexicali, Baja California, which plans to use the funding to pave roads and upgrade water and wastewater lines. The officials
likewise gave the okay to a third loan of US$36.6 million for infrastructure development of the Valle de las Palmas housing
project near Tijuana, Baja California. Also in Mexico, a US Environmental Protection Agency grant of US$549,488 will be channeled
through the NADB to provide 600 residential potable water hookups and related necessities in the municipality of Praxedis
Guerrero, Chihuahua, a violence-torn area located in the Juarez Valley across from Texas.
According to the NADB,
the new projects will contribute to the improvement of the border environment by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and downsizing
carbon footprints; by bettering air and water quality; and in the case of the Valle de las Palmas housing development, by
reigning in unregulated urban sprawl while "providing affordable housing to low-income families."
In
other news the NADB and its board, the Border Environment Cooperation Commission (BECC), also unveiled the Community Assistance
Program. The new fund is aimed at helping communities with little access to credit fund small environmental infrastructure
projects. Eligible beneficiaries will be able to receive a US$500,000 grant but must contribute 10 percent of the overall
project cost. Priority will be given to drinking water, wastewater and solid waste infrastructure projects, according to the
financial institutions. The upcoming application deadline for the grant is February 15, 2012.
Growing out of the
negotiations over the North American Free Trade Agreement and based in San Antonio, Texas, the NADB is a mechanism to fund
vital infrastructure and environmental projects in the underdeveloped US-Mexico border region. In the 16 years of its existence,
the bank has funneled about US$1.33 billion in both loans and grants to 152 projects in the United States and Mexico.
Financing decisions are approved by the BECC, which consists of representatives from the US and Mexican governments
as well as from border states and civil society. The participating agencies from the US include the Department of the Treasury,
the Department of State, and the Environmental Protection Agency. From Mexico, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Foreign
Relations, and the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources have representatives on the BECC.
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Frontera NorteSur (FNS)
Center for Latin American and Border Studies
New Mexico State University
Las Cruces, New Mexico
Reprinted with authorization from Frontera NorteSur, a free, on-line, U.S.-Mexico border news source; translation FNS
