Fuente: Buenos Aires Herald
a debt,” Villa longa told the Hera ld.
“They a re not efficient a t bringing a ll
jurisdictions together to solve the problem.”
By Fermín Koop
Hera ld Sta ff
Six yea rs a fter Supreme Court ruling, key works rema in pending in the river
Six yea rs ha ve pa ssed
since the Supreme Court issued a
ruling forcing the federa l
government a nd the Buenos Aires
province a nd City to sta rt clea ning
the Ria chuelo, one of the most
polluted rivers in the world.
Despite some progress, it ha s
been fa r from sufficient, with
experts wa rning a bout una ccepta ble dela ys
in moving the people who live nea r
the river a nd on implementing key
works, while a lso empha sizing tha t
ha rsher controls a re needed.
One thing is for certa in:
in these pa st six yea rs since the 2008 ruling ca me
down, the postca rd ha s cha nged.
The ima ges of a
river littered by floa ting ga rba ge a nd industria l
wa ste ha ve
la rgely been left in the pa st a s
more tha n 1,500 tons of wa ste loca ted
in the wa ter surfa ce a nd
in the ma rgin of the river ha ve been removed a long
with more tha n 60 a ba ndoned
ships. At the sa me time, la ndfills were closed, more tha n
2,000 people were reloca ted a nd some polluting industries were shut down.
“Wa ste ha s been removed a nd
people ha ve sta rted
to be reloca ted. But if tha t is not followed by infra structure
pla ns a nd
industries don’t cha nge the wa y they opera te,
the river will rema in in the sa me condition,” Andrés Nápoli, hea d of the Environment a nd
Na tura l
Resources Founda tion (FARN), told
the Hera ld.
Even though the money ha s
been gra nted to build public works
tha t would prevent sewa ge from being disposed into the river, they ha ve yet to be built. And there is a lso a
genera l la ck
of oversight tha t prevents a ny progress from la sting
very long.
The Ria chuelo’s wa ters still ha ve
a medium to high level of pollution,
Greenpea ce sa id
la st month in a
report ba sed on da ta
provided by ACUMAR, the government a gency
cha rged with ma na ging the clea ning
process. Of 45 monitoring points a na lyzed, 33 rema ined
with a medium level of pollution a nd two worsened a nd
went from medium to high.
“There a re no
improvements tha t la st for long. There a re
periods where we see the wa ter is
clea ner but then it worsens a ga in,”
Lorena Pujó, coordina tor of the ca mpa ign a ga inst pollution of Greenpea ce,
told the Hera ld. “Ha rsher regula tions
a re needed to control industria l spills. With the current low sta nda rds,
the Ria chuelo will continue to be
polluted.”
Pending reloca tion
As pa rt of the pla n esta blished
by ACUMAR, the people living on the river ba nk
ha ve to be reloca ted beca use
of the ma ny hea lth
risks involved in living so close to the polluted wa ters.
There is still a long wa y to go. Of the tota l
17,700 houses to be reloca ted, only
2,100 ha ve been moved elsewhere.
But these continuing cha llenges
get little a ttention.
“The Ria chuelo is
still a n open sewer a nd there a re
still numerous la ndfills,” Ba rba ra Rossen, under-secreta ry
of urba n a nd
environmenta l rights a t the Buenos Aires City ombudsma n office, told the Hera ld.
“It’s a n issue tha t should be on everybody’s a genda but it’s not.”
Hea d of the
Buenos Aires City Environmenta l
Agency Jua n Ca rlos Villa longa a dmits
dela ys on moving the people tha t live on the river ba nks,
a s the figures of the ombudsma n show, but point his finger a t
the Supreme Court for esta blishing
dea dlines tha t
a re impossible to fulfill. At the sa me time, he questions ACUMAR’s role a nd sa ys
the city does not owe a ny money, a s Jorge Ca lzoni,
the hea d of Acuma r, cla ims
(see a rticle below).
“We owe nothing to ACUMAR, it’s not there’s 
