The long road that has been traveled with respect to the subscription of the Addendum 13 to reactivate the Majes Siguas II project is about to reach its final stage. This Friday, February 25, the extraordinary council session in which the regional councilors of Arequipa will decide whether or not to sign this change in the concession contract and thus unlock the megaproject.
The former Minister of Agriculture, Milton Von Hesse, questioned the councilors who oppose the signing of the addendum and who consider that the project should have other characteristics such as a smaller dimension of the land modules. Von Hesse points out that there is misinformation on the part of regional legislators. He reminded them that the Ministry of Economy and Finance approved it as a project aimed at agro-exports, since it was always clear that, as it was an expensive project, where water and land were going to be expensive, “an agriculture business”. “It was determined that this project was not for small-scale agriculture, because there were other options for that,” he said in an interview with La República.
For Von Hesse, the only way to make the megaproject viable is to sign the addendum. Otherwise, Arequipa will say goodbye to its most emblematic project.
The Comptroller General of the Republic warned four risks regarding the addendum, one of them is that a sanction is not included in case the contract is terminated due to acts of corruption, they also refer to the payments for the technological change of 104 million dollars . Von Hesse pointed out that the Comptroller has already issued an opinion that the project can be executed and that the entity’s reports always point out all the risks. He considered that these are small.
The former minister pointed out that, if the technological change of moving from open channels to closed pipes is not made, there would be a risk, since it would not meet the goals of irrigating the projected 38,500 hectares. “Because the updated water balance showed that, if these transformations were not made, the water would not be enough for that amount but for 27,500 and the project could fail,” he said.
Von Hesse questioned the advisers again and pointed out that they cannot know more than the specialized technicians who evaluated the technological change and gave their favorable opinion. He pointed out that the aforementioned authorities have objectives that range from ideological to not very transparent, such as “distributing the land to family and friends.” The latter alluding to the Los Hijos del Cóndor case.
For him, it is now unfeasible for the modules to be reduced, but what is feasible is for the farmers to associate.
Last Wednesday, the Arequipa congressmen met with the councilors to discuss the addendum. At the meeting, legislator Jaime Quito said that continuing with the project under this model would mean returning to the estate.
Von Hesse, in his opinion, believes that this is why the discussion around the project has gone from being technical to one plagued by ideologies and ghosts.
Source: Larepublica
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