Majes Siguas II: what is to come after the signing of Addendum 13

With the approval of Addendum 13 that will reactivate Majes Siguas II, several tasks will be carried out by the Regional Government of Arequipa (GRA), owner of the agro-industrial project.

With the regional agreement in hand, the Governor Kimmberlee Gutierrez, you must inform the concessionaire Angostura Siguas to sign the modification of the concession contract. Counselor Harberth Zúñiga Herrera explained that a regulation was approved in the Regional Council, any director, has up to 3 business days to challenge it. “If none of this happens, next Thursday, it would be approved,” he said. The next thing is to resume the work, suspended four years ago, and hope that the Spanish also make their financial closure in six months.

The executive manager of the Majes Autonomous Authority (autodema), Arturo Arroyo Ambia, said that the concessionaire has two months to restart the works. The tunnel boring machine must be fine-tuned to drill the trans-Andean tunnel.

Angostura Siguas also has two months to present the water distribution file in the Siguas pampas and that includes the technological change approved with the addendum. You must process the Certificate of Non-existence of Archaeological Remains (CIRA) and the respective environmental permits. Meanwhile, the GRA will hand over control of the project with the cleared land for the execution of major works: the Angostura dam of one billion cubic meters and the tunnel to transfer the waters of the Atlantic basin to the Siguas desert.

In this regard, Arroyo Ambia indicated that at this time they were advancing in work tables with the community members and there is little left to accomplish this. If the conversations are not fruitful, the expropriation will proceed, paying the owners what the law indicates.

The energy component

Majes Siguas II has two components: the agricultural component, with the irrigation of 38,500 hectares in the Siguas pampa for agro-export, and the energy component, which provides for the construction of a hydroelectric plant for now. This will work with the 34 cubic meters of water that will be transferred from the Condoroma and Angostura dams.

Jimmy Masciotti is an official of Inland Energy, a Chinese capital company. This confirmed the construction of the Lluclla hydroelectric plant. They already have the main paperwork approved for this project, only some details are missing and negotiations are underway with the contractors who will be in charge of the hydromechanical and electromechanical part.

He said that the contracts are almost finalized, their closure depended on the approval of Addendum 13 to reactivate Majes II. This change in the concession contract was approved by the Regional Council of Arequipa. It was an essential requirement that Angostura Siguas demanded to continue with the concession.

Lluclla is located in the intermediate zone of the project. The hydroelectric plant will work thanks to a spectacular drop of 1000 meters. With that amount of water and at a height of 500 meters -said the official- we would only have generated half the energy. “But we have that favorable geographic condition and turbines that will allow the generation of 300 megawatts of power,” he added.

The construction of the hydroelectric plant will generate up to a thousand jobs. They will pay the GRA an estimated $8.5 million annually for the use of water and approximately $11.5 million in Income Tax, from which the energy canon will come. Masciotti also reported that according to their environmental impact study they have several communities in the area of ​​influence, with them they will begin a process of social relations that could not be started due to the pandemic and the uncertainty of the pandemic.

Irrigation infrastructure ready

Major irrigation infrastructure using Majes Irrigation will also be used by Majes II. He must get ready, his situation is dire, as reported by the specialist in Water Resources, Iván Díaz Robles. This works to complete the Terms of Reference of the tender to hire the company that will evaluate the irrigation infrastructure and deliver the project’s technical file by the second week of March.

Díaz Robles explained that it is estimated to pay S / 40 million for the file. This work could take up to 8 months, because 101 kilometers of tunnels and canals that are more than 40 years old must be evaluated. With the file in hand, the tender for the work will proceed. The overall budget is estimated at US$300 million. Both contracts will be made under the International Tender modality. Autodema carries out this work in conjunction with a team from the Ministry of Agrarian Development and Irrigation. “Without Addendum 13, this investment could not be made, because the national government would not invest US$300 million just for 15,000 hectares of small-scale agricultural land. With the approval of the addendum, then the resources can be managed”, added the specialist.