T&T signs historic $1.5b loan with IDB

At an historic signing of a loan agreement yesterday between the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the Government, IDB president Luis Alberto Moreno said the US$246.5 million loan was the largest to be granted in the English-speaking Caribbean. The objective of the investment loan is to contribute to sustained efforts of improving environmental conditions by decreasing the uncontrolled discharge of untreated wastewater into the environment.

Two new wastewater treatment plant will be constructed—one in San Fernando and one in Malabar. Moreno said, “I think more than anything else, it is a representation of the confidence that we have at the IDB of our strong commitment to the people and to the desires of the Government of Trinidad and Tobago and, truly, for the entire Caribbean region.”

Yesterday’s signing signalled the start of phase one of the Wastewater Rehabilitation Programme. Minister of Planning and Sustainable Development Dr Bhoendradatt Tewarie and Moreno signed the agreement at the La Boucan Room, Hilton Trinidad and Conference Centre.

Also in attendance were Trade and Industry Minister Vasant Bharath, in his capacity as alternate governor of the IDB, and Minister of the Environment and Water Resources Ganga Singh. Moreno said, “It gives me a great pleasure to sign the largest loan that the bank has in any country of the English-speaking Caribbean. “A loan of close to US$250 million.”