RE:Mubadala (MINESA) to build a big water reservoir ?Interesting find Sailor - as per this site, it appears that Minesa may be interested in acquiring existing water infrastructure assets that have heavy finance charges for the municipality:
https://www.vanguardia.com/politica/385734-altos-intereses-tienen-en-crisis-al-acueducto-de-bucaramanga Another interesting editorial found here:
https://www.vanguardia.com/opinion/columnistas/movimiento-civico-conciencia-ciudadana/384384-las-pretensiones-de-minesa-en-sant Illustrates how active Minesa is in promoting its project, and how some are still not happy ...
Thursday, 29 December 2016 - 12:01 AM
The pretensions of Minesa in Santurbn
The water that supplies the Metropolitan Area of Bucaramanga is today, more than ever, threatened by the mining projects that are intended to develop in the paramo of Santurbn.
With the dismantling of the company Eco Oro Minerals, which chose to sue the Colombian State, the company Minera de Santander SAS, Minesa, tries to follow the steps of its predecessor and advances an aggressive campaign of publicity and penetration in the communities of Soto Norte. With "mirrors of gold" it tries to captivate the citizens, for which it counts on the support of the Mayor's Office of Surat, one of the municipalities of the province.
Minesa gives trips to Santa Marta for the elderly, sponsors cycling and soccer teams, offers balls, t-shirts and guitars, pays teachers in the arts, conducts training and non-formal education agreements with universities such as UIS, UTS, UPB, USTA and SENA, for which he designed scholarship programs. It also finances civil works such as road signs in the region and maintenance of infrastructure in schools and nurseries.
It has formalized "agreements" with international entities such as Unicef and Unesco, UN agencies, and with control entities such as Minambiente, CDMB and CAS.
In short, Minesa seems to have replaced the municipal and departmental authorities in the administration of the municipalities in the province of Soto Norte.
In the language of the mining and oil multinationals, they seek to "win" the communities to achieve their goal of obtaining the environmental license for the exploitation of natural resources and then withdrawing from the areas leaving enormous environmental liabilities. Let this be the moment, again, to call the attention of the citizens of the AMB and Soto Norte again so that they do not fall into the trap. Water is health, it is life, it is future. Water Yes, Gold No!