Panama Allocates Funds for Ordnance Clearance

The project amounts to $1,126,710 and will be executed by a company that has been hired before, as it is in charge of clearing land with unexploded ordnance. Other contracts. At the end of 2018, Etesa hired the same company for $5,085,015 to clear areas contaminated with unexploded ordnance in Río Hato, Nuevo Emperador, and adjacent areas, sites along the second and third electrical transmission lines. This Wednesday, the Budget Commission of the National Assembly approved a transfer of $1,027,000 for the land cleanup, which will be contracted through an exceptional procedure. And in 2023, it was in charge of cleaning 160 hectares in the corregimiento of Cristóbal, in Colón, to develop several projects, at a cost close to $11 million. The company Fatutto, S.A. received another state contract to clean, this time, 18 hectares of servitude for the rehabilitation of the road that leads from the Vía Centenario to the Nuevo Emperador sector, in Arraiján. "The only alternative was to look for a specialist in handling these munitions," the official justified when mentioning why the contract with Fatutto was made directly. "This is not a job that conventional road construction contractors do." The Vice Minister of Public Works, Iván De Ycaza, and the Director of Studies and Designs of the Ministry of Public Works (MOP), Edwin Lewis, recalled that in this area, the United States Army maintained a shooting range, so there are munitions that must be removed. Lewis reported that in coordination with the Panama Canal Authority (ACP), it was found that the road servitude of the road project contains devices and unexploded munitions.