The president committed to the highway to the sea, the Micay hydroelectric plant and a headquarters for the University of Cauca.
“If there are 16 meters (of deep water) there is a port, and if there is a port we can reach China, it’s that simple, and China will be interested in not bringing cocaine, but in bringing shrimp.”
This was stated by President Gustavo Petro Urrego on the fourth day of the Government meeting with the Litoral Pacífico People, which took place this Thursday, January 25, in the municipality of López de Micay, in Cauca.
Due to the potential of the region, he also referred to the convenience of the construction of a hydroelectric plant, a university and the highway to the sea, which connects the Litoral with the Andean Cauca.
The place indicated by the president is located at the mouth of the San Juan de Micay River to the Pacific which, according to preliminary information, has deep waters of 16 meters, which meets the conditions to build a port that allows the country to set its sights on a market of 3 billion people.
“Without crossing a single mountain, simply sailing, we have a country (China) of 1.4 billion people. We will have the possibilities of a series of very large markets, because more or less 3,000 million people live around the Pacific Ocean,” he noted.
Regarding the hydroelectric project in López de Micay, the head of state indicated that this would be the solution to the problem of lack of energy in the region and will open the possibility of boosting the country’s markets towards the Pacific.
“The idea of the López de Micay hydroelectric plant is to get it done. We won’t see that, but it will begin. They have to implement it, because it is what gives energy security. Just as there is food security, there is energy security for the territory,” he said.
The road to the sea
The head of state also referred to the construction of a 40-kilometer highway that connects the Cauca Pacific coast with the Andean Cauca and in this regard he gave instructions to the Minister of Transportation, William Camargo.
“The highway, fellow Minister (of Transportation), I don’t know exactly the route, but the highway from the Andean world to the sea has to be a fact—it is 40 kilometers—it has to be a fact. Give priority to the road with slopes, etc., with the environmental measures that must be taken, because we are in the most biodiverse area without doing the greatest possible damage to nature,” he stressed.
And he added: “But how is the Pacific Coast of Cauca not going to have the right to join its Andes of Cauca, how is it not going to be possible for the towns to cross from one side to the other in a relatively dignified and quick manner, how is it not going to be “It is possible that what can be done in Nariño and in the Cauca Valley, even in Chocó, cannot be done in Cauca.”
He added that the Micay Canyon “has to become the great marker for the development of Cauca, in cocoa, in coffee, in shrimp, in wood, in whatever we can develop.”
“It has to be created here, the Payaneses are very proud of their University, because here there has to be a vein of the university from the mountains and the moor to the sea. That university would be recreated if we could do it from Algeria to Puerto García; the headquarters of the university of the town of Micay along the Cauca coast,” he said.
Governor’s request
“Help us, President, to have a way to the sea, Cauca needs it, I place the royalty resources at our disposal, to be able to communicate this beautiful peaceful coastline.””, emphasized the governor of Cauca, Octavio Guzmán.
Likewise, the departmental president referred to the need to promote tourism on the Pacific coast of Cauca, where territories like Guapi are seen as gastronomic and cultural destinations, taking advantage of the biodiversity and environmental wealth that characterizes it. “Tourism is important in this region, we have the Pacific island that is the most beautiful, Gorgona Island, we want to promote the Cauca Pacific, so that the operators of the island are locals and we can, through tourism, generate income, Help us with the Satena airline, which is very expensive.”
Governor Guzmán said that this first Meeting of Economies for Life In Guapi, it was a great space to articulate governments and work together for results that result in the quality of life of the communities,