Government announces Dredging Plan as part of COP 30 actions

The PHD aims to integrate waterways into the Climate Plan, which establishes actions to combat climate change in Brazil until 2035

The Federal Government intends to integrate a Waterway Dredging Plan (PHD) into the initiatives to be presented at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP 30), which will take place in November 2025, in Belém (PA).

The information was passed on by Eliezé Bulhões de Carvalho, director of the Department of Waterway Management of the Ministry of Ports and Airports, this Tuesday (29), during the last day of the Regional South Export Forum, held in Porto Alegre (RS).

The PHD aims to integrate waterways into the Climate Plan, which establishes actions to combat climate change in Brazil by 2035. According to Eliezé, when the initiative began to be developed, the government did not yet have a dedicated transport department, which hindered the development of the sector. The department was only created in April of last year. “The issue of waterways was not a topic with the status of a department, which makes a huge difference for public policy,” he said.

“So, during this year, one of the major tasks of the General Coordination of Sustainable Planning was precisely to work on the topic of waterways in the Climate Plan, introducing it into the system”, he added.

Regarding dredging services for waterways, Eliezé emphasized that the Union's proposal is limited to the maintenance category only, without involving, for example, deepening dredging. "We will show business owners a schedule, a structure with the types of dredging. In Brazil, we do dredging for waterway maintenance. It is important for us to make this very clear: maintenance is the most important; we do not do any other type of dredging," he explained.

In the next steps, the department is working to include a sustainable approach that does not focus solely on the navigation channel of a specific river, but that takes into account the entire ecosystem that makes up the biome.

In addition to the PHD, the director said that, for the climate plan, the agency will include projects aimed at restoring waterway infrastructures damaged by severe climate events, such as the four locks in Rio Grande do Sul; maintenance and operation contracts for channels and Small Port Facilities (IP4); and the implementation of water quantity and quality monitoring systems for event modeling.

The panel “Dredging the Guaíba Waterway Network – from an Emergency Solution to the Perennialization of Navigation” was moderated by José Rebelo III, president of the Brazilian Association for the Development of Inland Navigation (ABANI). Also participating in the debate were Roberto Sffair, managing director of Navegação Guarita, and Paulo Bertinetti, president of Tecon Rio Grande.

The panel “Dredging the Guaíba Waterway Network – from Emergency Solution to the Perennialization of Navigation” was moderated by José Rebelo III, president of the Brazilian Association for the Development of Inland Navigation (ABANI). Roberto Sffair, managing director of Navegação Guarita, and Paulo Bertinetti, president of Tecon Rio Grande, also participated in the debate. Photo: Neitor Corrêa