Riachuelo, unstoppable pollution and more than 5 million people in danger

The story is old. Nobody solves it in its entirety. It shows the fragmentation of powers between the justice system, the city of Buenos Aires, the province of Buenos Aires and a large number of municipalities.

We are talking about the Cuenca del Riachuelo, an open sewer, an Argentine shame that has often left us without discussion while, for example, the demonstrations in the country against the mills against Uruguay were obvious. It is 64 kilometers long, crosses 14 municipalities and extends over 2,000 square kilometers.

Your permanent pollution affects 5 and a half million inhabitantsnearly 4 out of 10 have no drinking water and more than half do not have sewers. Every day, historically, the Riachuelo receives almost 90,000 cubic meters of industrial waste many factories installed on its banks. In tode the Basin, there are 13,000 industrial establishmentsFrom this total, 1397 were declared pollutants.

To these chemical tributaries add 368,000 cubic meters of sewage per day, of which – according to some control bodies – only 5% receive specific treatment. If we follow the advice of Acumar (authority of the Matanza-Riachuelo Basin), created specifically so that all affected jurisdictions agree and do not fight each other, one third of the intoxicating flow comes from industrial waste. They badured ACUMAR that 412 polluting industries have been reconverted in respect of the environment and another 512 are being processed.

In this same pool there are more than 100 open dumpso and water has levels of mercury, zinc, lead and chromium up to 50 times higher than allowed, used by 13 emergency villas in the lower part of the river.

In Inflamable Villa, this is the case, Children have 5 times more lead than unacceptable.

Leads ill who suffers, delays growth, leads to aggressive behavior, affects the skin and produces painful consequences until the day of his death.

This is not everything. In the samples collected in the region was detected in specialized laboratories abroad the presence of nonifenol, which destroys the reproductive system and the hormone estrogen. Traces of carcinogenic insecticides and DDT banned. The presence of elements that affect the brain and kidneys has been verified, another attack on the kidneys and liver.

Too bad for the health of such magnitude that it looks like a war, with people badigned for life, without any break in continuity.

The campaign for the urgent cleaning of Riachuelo began in the early 90's. It was solved by APOC, the badociation of staff of control bodies, for its own research and action of neighborhood badociations. APOC then showed that England, with only 50 million dollars, had been able to clean the Thames thoroughly and forever, very polluted.

L & # 39; extinct Maria Julia Alsogaray, senior government official Carlos Menemshe said absolutely, that in a short time she would reverse the problem. Nothing has happened. It was a promise made to the wind.

The question was so relevant that it was brought to the attention of Supreme Court who ordered the cleaning of the basin without any result: no one obeyed. As the action does not depend on a single entity, but several (city of Buenos Aires, province of Buenos Aires and municipalities, as we said), there was no way to reconcile criteria, budget and political amenities. An ancient drama that is the disengagement of Argentina.

In a second step, the Supreme Court of Justice decided, in the case "Mendoza, Beatriz Silvia and others v. National State / damages", to condemn the national state, the province of Buenos Aires and the city of Buenos Aires to execute once and for all a program of sanitation of the waters of Riachuelo and its surroundings.

The contest originated in 2006 when 17 victims brought a lawsuit against the constituted powers and against 44 companies. The Court defined a program of action requiring the codification of budget items and entrusting the National Audit Office with the achievement of permanent control over the allocation of resources and resources. budget execution.

ACUMAR has acted over time, but the results leave much to be desired. An NGO group has accused, specifically at ACUMAR, of being "unable" to clean the Riachuelo. They asked to face the problems in an integral, multidisciplinary and participative perspective.

Although ACUMAR organized a meeting with German, Colombian, Spanish, South Korean, Ecuadorian, American, Italian and Brazilian specialists, militant NGOs questioned the "non-respect of the constitutional and legal functions of the Supreme Court of Justice "and they rejected" the execution of ACUMAR for its emptying ". They asked to show the functioning of
ACUMAR concerning its budget and execution.

The president of the La Boca Neighbors Association, Alfredo Alberti, warned that reducing the budget to achieve the goal is very obvious. In terms of medical care, there is a lack of personnel and resources. The Argerich hospital has collapsed and health centers in the region are out of capacity. The most frequent conditions in the area, said Alberti, are: allergies to the skin and respiratory tract. It is emphasized by local doctors and pharmacies.

Pollution remains ubiquitous. During the second half of last year, the works of extension of the sewage, rainwater and drinking water networks of the villa 21-24 of Barracas, leaks were detected.

In this villa a sample taken on According to all agencies and official representations, 962 children under 6, 25% of whom had lead in their blood.

And it was pointed out: "Lead competes in the body with calcium and iron, which can predispose the person to two initial reactions: developmental disorder for the learning of the body. child and anemia, it can affect the central nervous system headaches, insomnia, character and memory impairments, severe pain in the body, drastic changes in humor ". The chronic condition is "lead poisoning".

There are specialists who ensure that in three years and with a budget of $ 300 million for its total cleaning, the Riachuelo would become "appropriate for the development of pbadive leisure activities and aquatic life". Dreams of a summer night?