{"id":536920,"date":"2018-07-25T09:26:00","date_gmt":"2018-07-25T09:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/uncategorized\/riachuelo-ripulire-il-fiume-piu-inquinato-dell-argentina.html"},"modified":"2020-10-19T15:53:35","modified_gmt":"2020-10-19T15:53:35","slug":"riachuelo-cleaning-up-argentina-s-most-polluted-river","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/stories-behind-projects\/riachuelo-cleaning-up-argentina-s-most-polluted-river.html","title":{"rendered":"Riachuelo: Cleaning Up Argentina\u2019s Most Polluted River"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Riachuelo:<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

T<\/strong>he stench from one of the most polluted rivers in the world<\/strong> is not as strong as it used to be.
Tanneries that dumped toxic chemicals<\/strong> into the Riachuelo <\/strong>in southern Buenos Aires for decades – if not centuries – have left its banks.
It has been 10 years<\/strong> since Argentina\u2019s Supreme Court ordered <\/strong>the notorious river and wider Matanza-Riachuelo Basin be cleaned up<\/strong>, and the country\u2019s biggest public works project is producing tangible results.<\/strong>
The Autoridad de Cuenca Matanza Riachuelo (ACUMAR), the public authority created to oversee the approximately $1.2-billion clean-up partly financed by the World Bank has inspectors roaming the basin and imposing fines on polluters. The authority is shutting down abusive factories, clearing garbage<\/strong> from the river <\/strong>and salvaging <\/strong>boat wrecks <\/strong>from its bottom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And, most importantly, it is overseeing the installation of a sewage system with kilometres and kilometres of pipes and tunnels for the millions of inhabitants in the area who do not have toilets in their homes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The latest initiative of this kind was announced on July 6,<\/strong> when ACUMAR President Dorina Bonetti joined Argentina\u2019s undersecretary of urban development and housing, Iv\u00e1n Kerr, in inaugurating <\/strong>the second phase of the installation <\/strong>of sewage pipes<\/strong> in the San Jos\u00e9 Obrero neighbourhood in the district of Lan\u00fas. It will add 436 families<\/strong> to the sewage system<\/strong> after 200 were brought on line in May during the first phase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rather than dump their waste into open pits or ravines, the families will be able <\/strong>to flush <\/strong>it to a treatment plant<\/strong>. This will help reduce the amount of raw sewage that enters the waters. Despite the strong industrial presence in the basin area, 80%<\/strong> of the pollution <\/strong>of the Riachuelo <\/strong>is due to the dumping <\/strong>or discharge <\/strong>of human waste.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Riachuelo:
Riachuelo river clean up project<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u00abThis is an important project that substantially improves the quality of life of residents\u00bb, Kerr said in a statement announcing the latest installation of sewage pipes. \u00abWe are very happy to be able to provide solutions to those who need them most\u00bb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bonetti emphasized the importance of the latest initiative, explaining how about half of the residents in the basin area did not have access to a proper sewage system<\/strong>. \u00abThe limited access to this basic health service exposes a large part of the basin\u2019s population to health risks\u00bb, she said in the statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These risks are serious considering the fact that the basin hosts 23% of the residents of metropolitan Buenos Aires, or 9.16% of the country\u2019s total population. Its waters extend for 64 kilometres through the capital city\u2019s 14 municipalities, according to the newspaper, \u201cEl Cronista\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And the damage <\/strong>that the pollution has caused to the health of many residents is evident. In Lan\u00fas, for instance, three out<\/strong> of every 10 people<\/strong> has dangerous levels<\/strong> of lead <\/strong>in their blood<\/strong>, according to the newspaper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another part of the clean-up is a $450-million hydraulic tunnel being excavated<\/strong> by a consortium led by Salini Impregilo<\/strong> that will flush into the River Plate waste water pre-treated by the plant being built. The River Plate <\/strong>is where the waters of the Matanza-Riachuelo Basin empty.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since starting the tunnel works in 2017, the consortium has excavated more than two kilometres, more than 15% of its total length.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once it will be completed at 12 kilometres in length<\/strong>, the tunnel will be one of the longest <\/strong>of its kind <\/strong>in the world<\/strong>. It will go 40 metres below the bed of the River Plate<\/strong>. The last 1.5 kilometres of the tunnel will be equipped with a series of steel tubes that will rise up to the riverbed, allowing for the treated water to exit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The work, which has created some more than 300 jobs<\/strong>, is expected to be finished <\/strong>by 2021<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photo credits: Salini Impregilo Image Library \u2013 Photo by Moreno Maggi<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The stench from one of the most polluted rivers in the world is not as strong as it used to be.Tanneries that dumped toxic chemicals into the Riachuelo in southern Buenos Aires for decades – if not centuries – have left its banks.It has been 10 years since Argentina\u2019s Supreme Court ordered the notorious river and wider Matanza-Riachuelo Basin be cleaned up, and the country\u2019s biggest […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":155416,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[19002,19013,12216],"yst_prominent_words":[6389,17808,17807,2073,6392,6388,14844,17810,17805,14980,4817,5092,6385,80,17809,17806,17804,7592,1828,17812],"class_list":["post-536920","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories-behind-projects","tag-new-challenges","tag-north-and-south-america","tag-water"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536920","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=536920"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536920\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":541432,"href":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536920\/revisions\/541432"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=536920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=536920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=536920"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=536920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}