Neuquén Tenders the Study Before the Flood Diversion

Neuquén has opened procurement for the environmental and social study of the proposed Portezuelo Grande flood diversion channel. The tender was announced in the official bulletin on October 13, giving a long-standing protection option a defined assessment route before any claim of construction progress.

The proposed channel would provide an alternative path for exceptional flows on the Neuquén River, strengthening protection around the Cerros Colorados–Portezuelo Grande complex. The province identifies communities in the Alto Valle of Neuquén and Río Negro, productive activity and Vaca Muerta’s development among the interests exposed to major floods.

A Channel, Not a New Dam

The study will evaluate the potential environmental and social effects of building a diversion channel. The provincial account expressly distinguishes that option from a new dam. That distinction matters because it identifies what bidders are being asked to assess, without assuming that the assessment will settle every question about flood management in the basin.

Neuquén also describes the channel as a contribution to risk mitigation rather than the definitive solution. Its announcement points to complementary needs for infrastructure, flow regulation and longer-term planning. A useful study therefore has to examine this particular option on its own terms while preserving the wider context in which it might operate.

The Province Funds the Next Step

The Provincial Water Fund will finance the study. EMHIDRO will contract it, supervise the technical work and process the environmental license under provincial legislation. Those named responsibilities give the assessment a clearer delivery arrangement than a general promise to advance flood protection.

The province says it is acting despite a Supreme Court judgment assigning responsibility to the national government. Its decision accelerates preparation; it does not establish that every later funding or construction responsibility has been resolved.

Offers are due through Neuquén’s digital procurement platform by November 13 at 11 a.m. The next meaningful evidence will concern procurement completion, the study’s findings and the environmental process. Until those steps are evidenced, the channel remains a proposed intervention whose effects are being examined, with provincial money supporting the assessment rather than demonstrating a finished protective asset.