Cultivators and mills have been summoned by Asocaña to work on the construction of a proposal that will be presented to the CVC.
Sugar cane mills and growers, especially those located on the Cauca river side and in an area of 35.000 hectares, work together on an alternative proposal for flood risk management, which will be presented to the Regional Autonomous Corporation del Valle del Cauca (CVC) at the end of this year.
The need to elaborate and present this proposal arose after the sugarcane growers expressed their concerns to the environmental authority about the measures included in the project "Corridor of conservation and sustainable use of the Cauca river system" (see box) , especially due to the so-called lamination lagoons or potentially floodable areas.
Asocaña presented a technical, legal, environmental and social support on this particular measure. The CVC filed and ruled out the rolling gaps as a possible solution to mitigate the effects of the floods in the upper valley of the Cauca river, and offered the sugar sector the possibility of proposing an alternative proposal.
In response to that vote of confidence, Asocaña began a series of meetings with the owners of 809 properties located in the area of influence of the corridor, and, with the advice of the Ingenieríae Infraestructura (IGEI) group, works on a series of options with economic support , environmental, social and legal.
The content of this alternative proposal is being discussed with the cane growers and property owners summoned by Asocaña through its affiliated mills.
According to Claudia Calero, director of social and environmental management of Asocaña, the proposal would be closely linked to the Lillienthal Plan (a study from the XNUMXs that proposed the construction of the Calima and Anchicayá hydroelectric plants, the RUT irrigation district and the reservoirs of Salvajina and Sara Brut, among others) and proposes to complete the works of the plain that were pending, such as protection rings and priority storage reservoirs, and to review the rule of operation of the Salvajina.
During the meetings called, one of the topics for discussion has been wetlands, since these ecosystems would be integrated into the Cauca River corridor and it is necessary to clarify the current legal definitions, so that the areas for which there is no valid technical information.
The proposal will be presented to the CVC for discussion at the end of 2014, since the project 'Conservation Corridor and Sustainable Use of the Cauca River System' is carried out with a governance approach, which involves the participation of different social actors, both public as private, in decision-making to achieve concerted solutions.