Colombia, businessmen call for deepening of canal in Buenaventura

• Elpais.com.co reports that businessmen and guilds are asking the Colombian Government to dredge and deepen the access canal to 13.5 meters.
• Rodrigo Velasco, head of Andi, said that the road infrastructure would have to improve to compensate for the lack of depth of the canal that hinders the entrance of cargo ships.
• According to Domingo Chinea, head of the Regional Seaport Society of Buenaventura (Sprbun), stated that Buanaventura’s canal is 9 meters deep without the tide and at the Ecuadorian end 7.5 meters.
• Chinea expresses the need for at least 13.5 meters in the short run and 15 meters by 2014.
• ECLAC (Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean) suggested that ports be deepened to 18 meters to accommodate larger cargo ships.Read Article