Reconquista River
Encyclopedia
Provinces of Argentina
Argentina is subdivided into twenty-three provinces and one autonomous city...
of Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires Province
The Province of Buenos Aires is the largest and most populous province of Argentina. It takes the name from the city of Buenos Aires, which used to be the provincial capital until it was federalized in 1880...
, Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
. Together with the Riachuelo, it is one of the most contaminated watercourses in the country.
The Reconquista is part of the Río de la Plata
Río de la Plata
The Río de la Plata —sometimes rendered River Plate in British English and the Commonwealth, and occasionally rendered [La] Plata River in other English-speaking countries—is the river and estuary formed by the confluence of the Uruguay River and the Paraná River on the border between Argentina and...
basin. It is born in Marcos Paz
Marcos Paz Partido
Marcos Paz is a partido in the Argentine province of Buenos Aires. Its capital city is Marcos Paz.Established on 25 October 1878 , Marcos Paz is located at the eastern border of the Greater Buenos Aires with the rest of the province, although on an administrative sense, it is not considered part of...
, Buenos Aires Province
Buenos Aires Province
The Province of Buenos Aires is the largest and most populous province of Argentina. It takes the name from the city of Buenos Aires, which used to be the provincial capital until it was federalized in 1880...
, and flows across 18 municipalities, emptying in the Luján River
Luján River
The Luján River runs from its source near Espora about east of Buenos Aires, Argentina to its outflow into the Río de la Plata north of the city.-See also:* List of rivers of Argentina-External links:*...
. Its drainage basin
Drainage basin
A drainage basin is an extent or an area of land where surface water from rain and melting snow or ice converges to a single point, usually the exit of the basin, where the waters join another waterbody, such as a river, lake, reservoir, estuary, wetland, sea, or ocean...
has an area of 1,670 km², and is populated by around 4 million people.
The river carries about 33% of the total pollution drained by the estuary of the Río de la Plata, taking into account both industrial and domestic waste. There are about 12,000 industries in its basin, 700 of which dump their waste into the watercourse without controls. Studies have found nitrite
Nitrite
The nitrite ion has the chemical formula NO2−. The anion is symmetric with equal N-O bond lengths and a O-N-O bond angle of ca. 120°. On protonation the unstable weak acid nitrous acid is produced. Nitrite can be oxidised or reduced, with product somewhat dependent on the oxidizing/reducing agent...
s, nitrate
Nitrate
The nitrate ion is a polyatomic ion with the molecular formula NO and a molecular mass of 62.0049 g/mol. It is the conjugate base of nitric acid, consisting of one central nitrogen atom surrounded by three identically-bonded oxygen atoms in a trigonal planar arrangement. The nitrate ion carries a...
s, ester-phenol
Phenol
Phenol, also known as carbolic acid, phenic acid, is an organic compound with the chemical formula C6H5OH. It is a white crystalline solid. The molecule consists of a phenyl , bonded to a hydroxyl group. It is produced on a large scale as a precursor to many materials and useful compounds...
s, PCB
Polychlorinated biphenyl
Polychlorinated biphenyls are a class of organic compounds with 2 to 10 chlorine atoms attached to biphenyl, which is a molecule composed of two benzene rings. The chemical formula for PCBs is C12H10-xClx...
, and heavy metals. These pollutants can cause hepatitis
Hepatitis
Hepatitis is a medical condition defined by the inflammation of the liver and characterized by the presence of inflammatory cells in the tissue of the organ. The name is from the Greek hepar , the root being hepat- , meaning liver, and suffix -itis, meaning "inflammation"...
, skin reactions, gastrointestinal problems and eye infections.
History
During the 1980s, there was a wave of protests by local residents denouncing the lack of state involvement; in 1984 the national SenateArgentine Senate
The Argentine Senate is the upper house of the Argentine National Congress. It has 72 senators: three for each province and three for the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires...
treated the issue for the first time. In 1995 the national government obtained a loan from the Inter-American Development Bank
Inter-American Development Bank
The Inter-American Development Bank is the largest source of development financing for Latin America and the Caribbean...
for the cleaning and control of the Reconquista.
The works started in 1996, with a $
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
400 million budget assigned to an autonomous entity called UniRec. In 2001 they were officially finished, and advertised as such, though only the flood prevention works were built. Four projected waste treatment plants and sanitation infrastructure were not. There was also no minimization or monitoring of industrial waste dumped into the course.
According to Martín Nunziata, member of a Río de la Plata environmental group, this failure to comply with the plan was the result of political corruption, and also due to the pressure exerted by the polluting industries on the workers: "The companies warn [them] that, if the environmental laws are applied, they will have to close." Nunziata also alluded to the cellulose plant conflict between Argentina and Uruguay
Cellulose plant conflict between Argentina and Uruguay
The pulp mill dispute was a dispute in South America between Argentina and Uruguay concerning the construction of pulp mills on the Uruguay River. The presidents at the time were Néstor Kirchner and Tabaré Vázquez...
: "If, starting today, it was decided to demand from the industries of the Reconquista River the same things we want Uruguay to demand from the Fray Bentos cellulose plants, out of the 12,000 companies installed, at least 10,000 would have to close down."
See also
External links
- La Nación. 22 May 2004. Contaminación en el río Reconquista (quoted in Naturaleza para el futuro).
- La Capital. 6 August 2006. Alarma por la contaminación del río Reconquista.
- Página/12. 9 August 2006. Un espejo para el Riachuelo.