By JIGGSLAW®. Fypasa, a Mexican company, was awarded a super project for the Titicaca Lake depollution in April 2019. The Ministry of Housing, Construction and Sanitation granted a 30-years concession, but Titicaca Ecological Operator (Opeti), former Mexican group Fypasa, requested that the contract be annulled, sending the parties (currently in a conciliation hearing) to arbitration.
The “WasteWater Treatment Plants for the Titicaca Lake basin” project aims to put ten treatment plants in place to reduce the Titicaca pollution caused by raw domestic sewage and uncontrolled gold mine residues dumped into the lake’s rivers from the Puno region.
In April 2019, the concession was granted by the Peruvian State to the Mexican Consortium, comprised of Fypasa Constructions Company with fixed and variable capital and the Ecosystem Operator with fixed and variable capital (“the granted project PTAR Titicaca will benefit more than a million Puno inhabitants”), Ministry of Economy and Finance),who triumphed over the consortiums’ submissions from Aguas de Puno (Spain), Coolas (France), FCC Aquilia (Spain) and Sociedad Anónima de Obras y Servicios, COPASA, Sucursal del Perú (Spain).
Opeti has rescinded the contract two and a half years later and claims a breach of construction development schedules, and local communities involved are concerned that it will be halted. (See “Construction of 16-year construction project to be abandoned,” Without Borders Magazine, September 27, 2022). Even this fact is not without controversy, as a result of Puno and Juliaca workers’ protests against the concessionaire’s working and security conditions, as well as accusations of abuse and payment breach. (“Workers involved in the execution of the treatment plant project protest against Opeti,” Radio Blue Wave, February 19, 2022).
Pollution in Lake Titicaca has long been a source of concern for its people and the global environmentalist community. In August 2022, the UN Development Program announced the establishment of a pollution watchdog and a platform for monitoring toxic residue levels.
