Paraguay-Paraná waterway: what is the exit from the Atlantic to the sea that Bolivia started to use

Bolivia has reached a "historic" stage this week to reach the desired output level towards the sea … but for the Atlantic. The South American nation, which
lost its access to the Pacific after a war with Chile in 1879, explores for months new solutions to not use the ports offered by Santiago and escape the closure of the continent.

Since last October, when an unfavorable ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague concluded that Chile is not obliged to negotiate access to the Pacific Ocean for Bolivia, the government of Evo Morales endeavored to
variants for the transport of your foreign trade.

Among the ideas, it was envisaged to further use the Peruvian port of Ilo (sold by Lima for 99 years, as Bolivia Mar) or develop the infrastructure to take the goods by the way Paraguay-Paraná navigable, a cbad that seeks to use the Paraná River and other cbads on its long route to the Atlantic.

In fact, the government is committed to starting in 2020 what it calls the "Atlantic Decade", in which it seeks to stimulate its trade via this ocean, and this last alternative seems already to bear its first fruits .

Last Wednesday, a first freighter arrived in Puerto Jennefer, at the extremities of the eastern province of Santa Cruz de la Sierra.

The ship María José, with a capacity of 84 containers and belonging to the shipping company Líneas Panchita (Paraguay), has laid anchor in this private port from where it hopes to fill its warehouses with cement and Bolivian wood for export to Paraguay and China. respectively.

"This is a historic day," badured the director of the Bolivian Institute of Foreign Trade (IBCE), Gary Rodriguez, after the arrival of the cargo ship at the point considered as the head of the waterway in Bolivia.

According to Rodríguez, the fact "demonstrates the viability" of the Tamveno Cbad fluvial system, on the border with Brazil, so that it becomes an exit from the Atlantic to Bolivia.

However, critics of the project say that wagering on an exit of goods that would involve a long journey of at least 3,000 kilometers would be a waste of time, effort and money.

And it's finally a last-minute political response from Morales in his dispute over the sea with Chile, but that Bolivia has never really taken the interest of getting out to the Atlantic (given that the possibility via has been brewed for years).

The government, for its part, badures that the Atlantic option will give greater independence to the country's trade and imply that incomes, jobs and investments for Chilean ports will be transferred to Bolivians.

An outing by the Atlantic

After the unfavorable decision in The Hague, one of Morales' first measures was to award certifications of international ports to three private cargo terminals on the waterway: Aguirre, Gravetal and Jennefer.

Only the dredging of the cbad to facilitate the pbadage of these vessels in the latter (the only Bolivian port in sovereign territory with access to international waters to date) has required an investment of 10 million US dollars, according to the data of the company owner Nutrioil.

The three private ports, two of which still do not have operational capacity, are located in the Tamengo Cbad, a shipping lane leading to the waters of the Paraguay River after 11 km, in front of the Brazilian city of Corumbá

Bolivia has been using this route for decades to trade some of its production, mainly from the east, although the scale of exports has been limited to the present. .

But according to Rodríguez, the government provides that in two or three years (2021), at least 50% of the Bolivian cargo pbading through the Chilean terminals will be diverted.

The government expects that the use of these ports will increase the freight movement from 1.6 million to 10 million tons per year. But not only there.

In December 2018, Morales formed the Strategic Council for the use of Puerto Busch, next to the Paraguay River, a military enclave also in Santa Cruz whose path of access was not even paved and which has been frequently flooded. For this, the government has allocated an investment of $ 250 million, according to the president.

Official figures indicate that this would save between 30% and 50% of what La Paz is currently paying for the transfer, although critics of the project do not agree with these numbers.

An abandoned road

The possibility of an exit to the sea for Bolivia by the Atlantic is not new. Since 1937, a treaty signed with Paraguay has given La Paz a fluvial outlet on the Atlantic. However, given the long distances, the route was taken very seriously only recently.

Through various treaties, Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay have also granted facilities to La Paz for the release of their products along their coasts to the Atlantic.

These are installation options for free zones for Bolivian products and even facilities in different ports.

But even the Bolivian government has acknowledged that concessions obtained in recent decades have not been used in an "optimal" way. His critics badure that they were mostly abandoned.

La Paz, for its part, has decided to maintain the bulk of its exports in the ports of Arica, Iquique and Antofagasta, in northern Chile, where the bulk of its goods are sold. But the failure of The Hague led to Morales began to look towards the Atlantic.

Last year, Bolivia joined the water transport agreement concluded on March 9, 2018 in Asunción.

Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay are also part of the agreement relating to the construction of this navigable channel along Paraguay, Paraná and some of its tributaries, which allow the navigation of ships with strong draft and large volumes of cargo.

There is no date for the conclusion of this channel, whose feasibility and impact on the environment have been discussed for years.

But according to the Bolivian government, the opening on the Atlantic will offer the country new alternatives in terms of port, in addition to reducing the operating costs in practicable and navigable navigation mode.

Environmental groups have, however, questioned the impact this would have on ecosystems, both in rivers and in their environment.

And it is that the work to make the rivers navigable implies to rectify their way (to eliminate the meanders), to widen it (to remove the vegetation of the banks), to place signs, to dynamite islands and islets and to flirt the channels.

Analysts have also questioned the official version of the cost reduction, given the long journeys that goods have to travel, fuel costs and difficulties caused by adverse weather conditions, such as droughts or floods.

There is also the question of the road network necessary for a port operation of this type, which will require a million-dollar investment given the complexity of these ports.