Colombia: The Impact of Reviving the Magdalena River

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos announced Nov. 3 that the government would invest 2.2 trillion pesos (roughly $1.2 billion) in restoring the navigability of the Magdalena River, Colombia's primary waterway and conduit between the Andean interior and the Caribbean coast. The initiative, first conceived in the late 1990s, is just one component of the Santos administration's larger attempt to develop Colombia's transportation matrix and create more cost-competitive options for getting goods to market.

While the project will have some positive effects, such as lowering transportation costs for the energy sector, the venture is no panacea. Fluvial transport will continue to account for a small percentage of overall freight in Colombia, and the country will still struggle with high transportation costs due to the overall inadequacy of existing infrastructure, namely its road and rail networks and intermodal facilities.