Rhon­da Krys­tal Ram­bal­ly

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."