2024-05-07 07:28:53
In 2017, the Spanish firm Dominion presented an initiative to the Ministry of Public Works that contemplated installing a thousand sirens to warn of emergencies on the country’s coasts. After seven years of processing, the project has not yet been put out to tender. The company maintains that this process, originally scheduled for 2024, was postponed to next year. However, the MOP assures that it has not been postponed and that it will be part of this year’s bidding package.
On November 29, the president Gabriel Boric celebrated, on a national network, the approval in Congress of the 2024 National Budget, which implied a 3.5% increase in fiscal spending. “We made every effort until the last minute to be able to approve and move forward with this budget. The discussion was not easy, which is to be expected when we are talking about such sensitive issues for each Chilean family,” the president acknowledged.
In his speech, the head of state announced ―in the measures against emergencies― that “we are increasing funds to strengthen the Senapred Early Warning Centers and to put out to tender a tsunami early warning system“.
This last promise was particularly striking. Currently, only five regions of the country have tsunami alarm sirens: Arica and Parinacota, Tarapacá, Antofagasta, O’Higgins and Maule. Meanwhile, alert systems, such as SAE, have been questioned for their performance in emergencies, as occurred in the fire that affected four communes in the Valparaíso Region last February.
The million-dollar tsunami warning project
Faced with this reality, in May 2017, the Spanish company Dominion presented to Ministry of Public Works (MOP) ―through the General Directorate of Concessions (DGC)― a project that contemplated the construction, installation and maintenance of a siren-based early warning system. Thus, these alarms would be located in the evacuation zones defined by the National Disaster Prevention and Response Service (Senapred) on the coasts of Chile.
That same year, the MOP declared the public-private initiative to be of public interest, which contemplates a investment of US$94 million.
The system includes the installation of a thousand sirens along the coastal edge, from the region of Arica and Parinacota to Magallanes. Specifically, it involves the implementation of 11-meter steel poles that individually support sound devices, electronics, communications and energy systems. This allows them to function autonomously and can be managed remotely via satellite. The sirens emit a sound wave that alerts residents to move to safe areas established in the evacuation plans of each locality.
Just over five years after the company delivered the proposal to the MOP, in August 2022, the Ministry of Social Development delivered a favorable social profitability report for the initiative. And, in October of that year, according to Dominion’s business development manager, Iñaki Aizpuruathe tsunami warning plan studies received the approval of Public Works and Senapred.
2024 or 2025? The mess over the tender in the MOP
After President Boric alluded to the initiative in his speech after the approval of the 2024 Budget, the project moved again.
Thus, on December 12, the Ministry of the Interior sent a letter to the General Directorate of Concessions – dependent on the MOP – requesting that the bidding stage begin. However, the European company denounces that, until now, the DGC has not issued the resolution that allows the competition to begin.
Thus, in March, in the DGC’s 2023 public account, the organization announced that the tsunami warning system would be part of the 2025 project portfolio. This raised suspicions on the part of Dominion, given that the initiative was originally scheduled for to be tendered in 2024.
According to the former director of Senapred, Álvaro Hormazábal, the delay in processing the project has no justification. “It is shown that the evacuation speed of risk areas is higher with sirens than with other means, such as SAE. The alert with sirens is also broader, since there are areas without cell phone coverage,” he commented to THE DYNAMO. Hormazábal adds that this was verified in comparative studies carried out by the public sector.
Through the press, the Spanish company announced that the project tender was postponed to 2025. As El Mercurio published, that would leave them in a “complicated scenario.”
consulted by THE DYNAMOsources from the Ministry of Public Works assure that The project was never postponed to 2025, and is part of the 2024 portfolio. They add that the “tangle” over the dates is due to an error in the web publication.
Along these lines, those close to the process propose that it is a artificial controversy, which would respond to the economic needs of the company. Others, meanwhile, point out that the delay in the start of the bidding is due to the fact that the Treasury had not approved the investment.
The MOP also adds that the project will be formally announced in the coming days, in conjunction with the 2024 tender package.