By Amada Racero / Migdalia Grinard for  La Prensa

March 3, 2013

Due to the bad weather, the National Civil Protection System (SINAPROC, Spanish acronym) has not been able to rescue two seamen who are on a ship that washed ashore at Colon City, Panama.  The local authorities roped off the area around first street to keep people away from the spilled fuel from the grounded ships. So far, six ships have washed ashore onto the beach in front of first street and the Juventud Park in Colon from the strong winds.  This morning, SINAPROC and the Red Cross had rescued 5 seamen from other ships.

The govenor of Colon Province, Pedro Rios, confirmed that the upper (eastern) and lower (western) coastal areas of Colon have been hard hit by a cold front that brought strong winds and 5 meter waves causing flooded rivers, high tides, and roofs being blown off of houses.

The govenor has asked people to stay away from the shore and remain in their houses until the bad weather passes.

(Article in Spanish)

 

Quimba, Darien

Quimba, Darien

Residence of 30 communities along the Pan-American road and of La Palma, the capital of Darien Province, anxiously await the completion of piers in Quimba and La Palma.

The studies made by the Darien Sustainable Development Program in 1995, now part of the National Sustainable Development Council (CONADES in Spanish acronym) included as its prime objective the construction of 3 important piers: one in Yaviza, which was inaugurated in September 2010 after numerous setbacks, and one each in Quimba and La Palma. The latter 2 are 12 years in the waiting and still are not completed. Piers in the Darien Province are very important infrastructures for transporting people and cargo along the coast and rivers where there are no roads.

Orlando Osorio, coordinator of CONADES projects, explained that the construction of both piers had been planned more than a decade ago and was bidded on 5 times beginning in 2001.  The first 3 attempts were either declared deserted or the bids were over the official price of $1.8 million. Finally, on the fifth attempt, Trans Carib Trading (TCT) won the contract for 3.7 million and was given the order to proceed in June 2011. The work should have concluded in May 2012, but the company requested several extensions.

TCT explained that both piers include a large landfill with bolders, which should come from a quary. Since TCT does not have a quarry it had to wait several months for the owners of a quarry to get the necessary permits from the Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MICI) and the National Environmental Authority of Panama (ANAM).

Currently both works are 85% completed and should be ready in March or April, 2013. The offcial price for the project rose 55.3% during the intervening years due to higher cost of material, labor, and professional fees, explained Osorio.

 (See article in Spanish)