Chemicals in the water of Pergamino | Water than against …

The water that consumes part of the Pergamino population is contaminated by 18 agrotoxic; two children, the children of the complainant, contain blood in the herbicide glyphosate. These are studies that emerge from the trial of federal courts, which banned fumigation within 600 meters of homes and investigated the criminal liability of agricultural contractors and municipal officials. The judicial decision is taken in the context of statements by President Macri, whom he accused of "irresponsible", a judicial decision protecting children from rural schools in Entre Ríos. Mothers of the fumigated peoples and the Assembly of Neighbors badert that the problem is not a chemical, but "a model that makes sick and kills".

Sabrina Ortiz is the mother of Ciro and Fiama. Both have glyphosate in the body. Together with her husband Sergio, they built their house in the neighborhood of Villa Alicia, in the urban area of ​​Pergamino. There, they heard about fumigations of the neighboring field. Since 2011, they have denounced the impact of agrotoxins. First of the Assembly for the protection of life, health and the environment, and then the organization Mothers of Fumigated Quarters of Pergamino.

While the neighbors asked to move the fumigations to more than 1,000 meters from the houses, the municipality ignored the claims and set only 100 meters of protection, in agreement with the agricultural contractors.

Sabrina is also affected by chemicals. It contains glyphosate and lambdacialotrina insecticide (produced by Syngenta, among others). She received a lawyer in 2018, a career that began with the injustices suffered by the political power and the judiciary itself. Last October, his children's doctor advised him to move away from fumigations. Sabrina and Sergio have decided to leave their homes and have taken legal action, jointly with the NGO Nature of Rights.

The case was brought before federal judge Carlos Villafuerte Ruzo of San Nicolás, who banned on April 3 the fumigation of homes located within 600 meters. Experimental measures include work by the National Institute of Agricultural Technology (INTA Balcarce). With the signature of researcher Virginia Aparicio, INTA confirmed that water for domestic consumption contained up to 18 agrotoxic agents: glyphosate, atrazine, imidacloprid, acetochlor, chlorpyrifos and 2- 4D, among others. The affected neighborhoods are Villa Alicia, Luad Kayad and La Guarida.

"It was possible to verify and prove for the first time in a court case that agro-toxins reached the water table and that the water consumed by the population contained a significant amount of poisons, which should not be ", complained Fernando Cabaleiro, an NGO lawyer Nature of Rights, and recalled that agribusiness companies and the media are advertising these products as" biodegradable ". The INTA study also determined the presence of 19 agrotoxins in the soil of Pergamino.

A detailed report titled "Pesticide-Free Water is a Human Right" of fumigated mothers and Nature of Rights warned that 44% of found chemicals are considered carcinogens and 39% as endocrine disruptors ( alt.Hormonal balance). They also denounced an unusual event: Argentine legislation allows levels of toxicity up to 1,000 times higher than European legislation. While in Germany, Switzerland or Spain, the maximum limit of the 2-4D chemical in water is 0.1 microgram per liter, in Argentina it is "allowed" up to 39 at 100 micrograms. "For the rest of the agrotoxics usually used in industrial agriculture, they do not even have a maximum value badigned to waste in the water," the organizations said during the court proceedings.

Intendant Javier Martinez (Cambiemos alliance) and his chief of staff, Carlos Pérez, have spoken to local media and said that Pergamino's water is "fit for human consumption" and that she is "calm" because there is no glyphosate in the water. They cited supposed scientific studies, but they did not deliver them to the press or to neighbors. Even Martinez reprimanded the victims of the fumigations by claiming that he was taking tap water.

"Mothers have never been received by Mayor Martinez, not even when we made public the badysis of my children, who have a hundred times more pesticides than their bodies allow.The Mayor has closed the door for us He despises people, especially children who are suffering, who get rid of their skin by chemists, who have trouble breathing, "said Sabrina Ortiz. He explained that Pergamino's Secretary of Health, María Martha Perretta, had not responded to the neighbors' requests either.

Assembly and Mothers of Fumigated Peoples and Nature of Rights stressed that the problem did not lie in agrotoxicity or "abuse" (as argued by agribusiness entrepreneurs), but in a transgenic-based production model and its use. mbad of poisons.