ILOILO – The Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) has downloaded to the Iloilo provincial government the first tranche of the US$3-million fund for the rehabilitation of the Concepcion fish port.
Concepcion’s Mayor Raul Banias said procurement will start as soon as the Provincial Engineering Office finished the backup computation.
Construction is expected to commence next month and will be completed in one year and a half.
An amount of US$1 million was transferred to the province’s trust account recently following the signing of the memorandum of agreement by KOICA, Iloilo provincial government, and municipal government of Concepcion.
The provincial government will undertake the procurement and construction.
The project’s major components include site development, administration building, fish market, fish market public toilet, causeway, and rockwall revetment.
The municipal government will provide utilities such as power, water, sewerage, and drainage and will also bear the costs of resettlement of affected residents.
The Northern Iloilo Fishery Rehabilitation and Development Project is an official development assistance (ODA) project funded by a grant from the Republic of Korea through KOICA.
It aims to boost economic growth and improve the living conditions of fisherfolks by providing disaster resilient infrastructure facilities and promoting sustainable fishery development activities.
The port was ravaged by super typhoon “Yolanda” in November 2013.
The United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) finalized the schematic design for the port’s rehabilitation.
Once completed, the new fish port is expected to provide adequate, quality and safe berthing of fishing vessels and improve the access to basic fish port services.
The fish port is also envisioned to make more efficient the fishery trading operations in Concepcion.
In a long run, the infrastructure should contribute to attaining inclusive growth that meets present and future needs towards sustainable fishery, raised the level of productivity, increased household income and local government unit revenues.
The rehabilitation would include the following:
* conversion of the existing wet market into a passenger terminal
* improvement of restaurants/stalls
* reclamation of a new fish port complex with total pavement area of 6,500 square meters
* construction of new wet market and causeway
The port’s schematic design was developed after hearing around 300 comments, suggestions and concerns from various sectors that would directly benefit from the project. The owners of restaurants were more concerned about their future business. For the fishermen, it was the capacity of the port to dock more boats than before. (LHC, Capitol News/PN)
