Architects warn that the Caracol houses sit in a floodplain

A group of American architects examined the plans for the EKAM housing village beside the Caracol industrial park and published their findings in March 2012. The site lay in a floodplain. The sewage arrangements looked unsustainable and the roofs were badly designed. They said the project would make the homelessness problem worse, objected to the American aid agency presenting it as a model for repetition elsewhere, and recommended that the contract be withheld and the whole design started again. The following month the agency awarded two contracts to build more than a thousand houses to the existing design. The work went to large international firms. The plan had called for small local companies. CEMEX of Mexico took more than seven million dollars. Thor Construction of Minnesota took thirteen million for 750 houses, having never worked outside the United States. Costs then rose. Thor gained four million more in June and July, CEEPCO three million in September.