ECUADORIAN MINISTRY AWARDS GUAYAQUIL CITY 25-YEAR DREDGING CONTRACT

In December 2016 the City Council of Santiago de Guayaquil Ecuador’s most populous city signed an agreement with the coun-try’s Ministry of Transports and Public Works (MTOP) to dredge the access channels of the city’s state-run and private port terminals. Under the terms of the agreement the City Council of Guayaquil will be responsible for setting and regulating local port taxes in addition to choosing a company to perform dredging at the municipality’s port access channels. The deal also includes a clause to avoid conflicts over the “dredging limits” that both the city of Guayaquil and maritime authority Puerto de Aguas Profundas de Posorja (DP World) have. The Ecuadorian Maritime Chamber CAMAE said dredging at the city’s port terminals is a need. CAMAE said if dredging deepened the local channels’ depth to 12.5 meters (41 feet) there would be major benefits for the surrounding port terminals which could then receive larger vessels.