The late reception of offers for road maintenance coincides with the start of the rainy season, influenced by the La Niña phenomenon. This could delay the execution of the works due to rainfall.
In a recent interview with the Network Newsthe Minister of Communications, Miguel Ángel Díaz, said that 242 events for road repair were built and the errors in which they were suspended last January for administrative problems are corrected.
When checking the Guatecompras portal, 177 covial events for the maintenance of paved and unpaid roads were identified. The offers must be presented between April and May, dates in which the rains will have already begun, according to the Insivumeh.
Maintenance works are stipulated in Zacapa, San Marcos, Quiché, Jutiapa, Petén, Huehuetenango, Guatemala, Escuintla, El Progreso, Chiquimula, Chimaltenango, Baja Verapaz, among others.
Insivumeh’s meteorologist César George said that the country is under the “weak effects” of the girl’s phenomenon and that, under these conditions, the rains tend to anticipate in the national territory, so they expect that the first region where it will begin to rain will be the Costa mouth and the southwest of the country. In both regions, rains are expected from April 10 to 20.
The departments of La Boca Costa are Jutiapa, Santa Rosa, Escuintla, Suchitepéquez, Retalhuleu and San Marcos. The Southwest includes Quetzaltenango, Retalhuleu, San Marcos, Suchitepéquez, Sololá and Totonicapán.
In the capital
The Insivumeh predicts that the rainy season on the central plateau will begin from May 15 to 25.
“Already by the end of May we would expect the rainy season to be established in most of the country. The last region where the rain begins is Petén. There would begin from May 25 to June 5,” George said.
“Being under the effect of a phenomenon of the weak girl, it is not ruled out that the rain can be advanced in the national territory at least one week, and in April some important rain events would be presented for the national territory,” added the meteorologist.
Answer
On the part of the CIV, it was answered that the pumping work of paved routes will be programmed during the cannula or in spaces where the climatic conditions are favorable, taking into account that the presence of rainfall in the country tends to be irregular, and will work in regions in which there is no rainfall.
“The panorama is positive, since unlike previous years, in which there were no active projects, by 2025 there will be companies with current contracts that will be hired for cleaning, pothole indicated.
Diego Fernández, president of the Sustainable Tourism Commission of the Association of Exporters of Guatemala (AGEXPORT), says that we would have to wait to see where the incidence of the rainy season will be and if the road works will be added to that.
“Obviously, this will delay the times in the mobilization. The ideal would be for repairs to be done during the summer; that would be ideal, but it should be reviewed what the deadlines for tender, award, disburse and execute,” he said.
Fernández adds that the work done must be with a view to the future and that they are not only palliative at the moment, and that in the short time they are damaged again.
Impossible maintenance
For the former Minister of Communications, Aldo García, it is impossible for the Civ to meet road maintenance during the rainy season, because it will not allow the works and for the times that an award entails, although the offers are presented in time.
Garcia points out that one of the common problems that arise during the winter is that, if working in a pothole or relapse and a collapse or sinking arises near where the work, machinery and resources destined for the maintenance of the road are used to cover that emergency.
“At the end of the story, there is no harm that for good does not come, because money will not serve for road maintenance, but it can eventually be used to attend emergencies that the rain will bring,” he explained.
The official says that that has even happened in tragedies such as Cambray, in Santa Catarina Pinula, where a collapse buried a colony and claimed the lives of 280 children and adults.
“I think it can be even a government strategy, because it is a way of maintaining resources to meet emergencies,” Garcia.
“If there are no awards because they will wait for the winter to maintain the roads, nor will the pothole, the emergencies, be attended, because there are no companies with contract. Maintenance will no longer be able to do it, that is impossible, unless the canicles are always waiting for,” he added.
Arrears
On January 16, CIV authorities went to a summons with all deputies of the party and announced that they will reactivate a series of suspended projects, equivalent to about 254 kilometers of roads.
The delegates of the portfolio indicated on that occasion that these are suspended projects for administrative, financial or, in some cases, legal reasons. At the beginning of this year, the CIV authorities claimed that, in total, they plan to allocate Q2 thousand 300 million of the more than Q9 billion assigned for new road sections.