The River Basin Committees of Chiriqu\u00ed Province toured a controversial rock and gravel extraction site today in Paso Ancho.<\/p>\n
A Ministry of Public Works engineer defended the project while some residents and members of the committees said they worried that aggressive extraction efforts had weakened the banks of the Chiriqu\u00ed Viejo river, making it more vulnerable to deadly flash floods. (Haga clic aqu\u00ed<\/a> para acceder a la versi\u00f3n en espa\u00f1ol de este art\u00edculo).<\/p>\n Bagatrac, the private contractor carrying out the project, has no plans to extract additional rocks from the river and is focused on hauling away tons of material that already has been crushed into gravel at the site, the public works engineer said.<\/p>\n The contractor is expected to remove the gravel and its equipment by around May 17, the engineer said. The company\u2019s contract expires on May 18.<\/p>\n