It Takes More than Two to Tango – or to Clean up Argentina’s Riachuelo River
It Takes More than Two to Tango – or to Clean up Argentina’s Riachuelo River
By Fabiana Frayssinet
[font size=1]
A young man looks out at the La Boca transporter bridge, built in 1914, which stopped operating in 1960. This emblem of
the Riachuelo river in Buenos Aires is being rebuilt as part of the clean-up of the river basin and is scheduled to begin
working again in 2015. Credit: Fabiana Frayssinet/IPSA young man looks out at the La Boca transporter bridge, built in
1914, which stopped operating in 1960. This emblem of the Riachuelo river in Buenos Aires is being rebuilt as part of the
clean-up of the river basin and is scheduled to begin working again in 2015. Credit: Fabiana Frayssinet/IPS[/font]
BUENOS AIRES, Aug 13 2014 (IPS) - Immortalised by a famous tango, the “Niebla del riachuelo” (Mist over the Riachuelo river) has begun to dissipate over Argentina’s most polluted river, much of which is lined by factories and slums. But two centuries of neglect and a complex web of political and economic interests are hindering a clean-up plan that requires a broad, concerted effort.
The 64-km Matanzas-Riachuelo river cuts across 14 Buenos Aires municipalities as it runs from the western Buenos Aires working-class suburb of La Matanza to the picturesque, lively neighbourhood of La Boca, where it flows into the Río de la Plata or River Plate.
In the 1937 tango by Enrique Cadícamo and Juan Carlos Cobián the river is described as “a murky anchorage where boats end up moored at the pier, destined to stay there forever”. But far removed from the poetic license of a tango, for two centuries the riachuelo was actually a foul-smelling dump for untreated sewage and industrial waste.
Now, thanks to the Integral Environmental Clean-up Plan approved in 2011, the situation has changed in the river known as Matanza at its source and Riachuelo where it runs into the Rio de la Plata.
“The mist is gone….because it had to do with the water pollution…so poor Cadícamo wouldn’t be able to write Mist over the Riachuelo river today,” Antolín Magallanes, executive vice president of the Matanza Riachuelo River Basin Authority (ACUMAR), told Tierramérica.
More:
http://www.ipsnews.net/2014/08/it-takes-more-than-two-to-tango-or-to-clean-up-argentinas-riachuelo-river/