Development bank approves $550M for Argentine infrastructure

The Washington-based Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has approved two loans to Argentina worth a combined $550 million to finance construction projects in that nation.

A $200 million loan will help provide upgraded water and sanitation services in 10 provinces that are part of the Belgrano Plan.

The IDB loan has been designed to benefit more than 150,000 homes by building the infrastructure to increase access to potable water and sanitation services in these northern Argentina provinces: Catamarca, Chaco, Corrientes, Formosa, Jujuy, La Rioja, Misiones, Santiago del Estero, Salta and Tucumán.

Planned construction projects include groundwater extraction, surface water collection, potabilization plants, aqueducts, distribution networks, pumping stations with their respective electromechanical equipment, sewers, main and secondary collectors and sewage fluids treatment plants and systems along with their ancillary works.

“Argentina is giving priority to increasing access to and improving the quality of water and sewerage services in the provinces covered by the Plan Belgrano,” IDB Project Team Leader Henry Moreno says. “This program will provide sewerage services to 19,000 homes and wastewater treatment services to 130,000 homes.”

Two loans worth a combined $350 million have been designed to enhance urban integration, social inclusion and education in the city of Buenos Aires via improvements in living conditions the IDB says.

More than 150,000 people will benefit from “urban infrastructure resilient to climate change and adequate spaces to live” in the Villa 31 section of Buenos Aires, as well as access to “a more equitable education system” in parts of the city.

Construction projects tied to the two loans include three new schools in Villa 31 for 1,100 students, plus upgraded living and work spaces in 550 structures and “deploying climate change-resilient urban infrastructure that will increase soil permeability and control buildings’ temperature,” says the IDB. Of the total operation’s resources, 64.5 percent will be earmarked for construction-related climate change mitigation and adaptation activities.

The program also will finance plans to move the Buenos Aires Education Ministry to the Villa 31 area, creating a new hub designed to help integrate it with the rest of the city via the construction of a 30,000-square-meter (323,000-square-foot) green building certified by the Excellence in Design for Greater Efficiencies (EDGE) system.

Established in 1959, the IDB describes itself as a leading source of long-term financing for economic, social and institutional development in Latin America and the Caribbean. The IDB also conducts research and provides policy advice, technical assistance and training to public and private sector clients in the region.