ACN

With the removal of some 8,000 cubic meters of sediments and the extension of the access for bigger ships, the dredging of the eastern Santiago de Cuba bay advances satisfactorily.
Ramon Suarez, technical vice-president of the Ports Authority in this city, explained the works underway at the 4th CARICOSTAS International Convention that wrapped up this Friday.

These works are one of the most important cleaning up actions to improve the ecosystem quality and done simultaneously with a environmental education program given to coastal communities inhabitants and thse using the bay, said Suarez.

The specialist highlighted the extraction of over 20 tons of hydrocarbons from a ferry that had fallen in disuse, cleaner production at the factories surrounding the bay, to reduce pollution and the proper disposal of solid waste from the city.

Luis Medina, head of Cuba’s National Port Authority, stated to the press that this project is done out of the need to increase the bay’s depth to minimize “false freightage” (payments done for unoccupied space in ships) and extra freightage (additional trips)

Medina added that the investments in dredging of Santiago de Cuba, Cienfuegos, La Habana and Nueva Gerona ports are up to 23 million dollars, a program to run through the year.

Santiago bay, with a privileged location for commerce in the Caribbean, is the second most polluted in Cuba, and in this area has the largest amount of maritime operations, since it does operations for all eastern Cuba provinces.