NORTH AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK SIGNS US$ 4 MILLION LOAN FOR AIR QUALITY PROJECT IN AGUA PRIETA, SONORA

(San Antonio, Texas) – The North American Development Bank (NADB) and the city of Agua Prieta, Sonora, finalized a US$4 million loan yesterday for the second phase of an air quality project that entails paving 26.9 kilometers (16.7 miles) of streets.

With this loan Agua Prieta can continue implementing its project to reduce dust particles through street paving. Upon completion of the project, increased street paving coverage and improved traffic flows is expected to greatly improve air quality for the 83,000 people living in the cities of Agua Prieta and Douglas, Arizona, its sister city on the border.

Currently, 80 percent of the streets in Agua Prieta are unpaved, which contributes greatly to local air pollution from dust and vehicular emissions, thus causing serious respiratory problems among residents.  In addition, the region's prevailing south-to-north winds blow the contamination across the border into Douglas, Arizona, creating a transboundary environmental air quality problem.

The US$17 million project is being constructed in three phases. The first phase—paving 6.9 km (4.3 miles) of streets—has already been completed.

NADB funding will be applied towards the second phase of construction. The remaining construction costs for this phase will be covered by a grant from the state environmental and urban development ministry, Secretaría de Infraestructura Urbana y Ecología (SIUE), as well as by equity contributions from the municipal government.

To date, the Bank has authorized just over US$30.7 million in financing for the construction of eight environmental infrastructure projects in border communities in the state of Sonora. 

Through its Loan and Guaranty Program the NADB has approved more than US$94 million in loans to support the construction of environmental infrastructure in various communities, which will benefit residents on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border.  Since its inception in 1995, the NADB has approved almost US$617.5 million in loans and grants for 67 infrastructure projects in the region.

For more information on the NADB, visit www.nadb.org.

The North American Development Bank, created under the auspices of NAFTA, is a financial institution established and capitalized in equal parts by the United States and Mexico for the purpose of financing environmental infrastructure projects along their common border.  As a pioneer institution in its field, the Bank is working to develop integrated, sustainable and fiscally responsible projects with broad community support in a framework of close cooperation and coordination between Mexico and the United States.

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