NOVEMBER 20 15 NOVEMBER 2015 profiles contents RECTOR STAFF WRITErs Carlos Ruta Vanina Lombardi Nadia Luna DIRECTOR Matías Alonso Diego Hurtado TRANSLATION EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Pilar Echave Eduardo Mallo LAYOUT AND DESIGN EDITOR Pilar Echave Bruno Massare MANAGEMENT PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR Secretaría de Innovación Pablo Carrera Oser y Transferencia de Tecnología UNSAM 5 • The Future of the Riachuelo River 11 • Open Science and Horizontal Innovation for Development ISSN: 2347-0380 2 3 NOVEMBER 2015 profiles The Future of the Riachuelo River Gabriela Merlinsky is a researcher from CONICET and the Institute Gino Germani of the University of Buenos Aires. For more than 20 years, she has been analyzing the environmental situation of the Matanza-Riachuelo basin, as well as the social aspects that left a mark in its history. The Riachuelo-Matanza river is the most polluted one in Argentina; its course is an open wound that shows the governments’ historic indifference to protection and remediation policies for the environment. However, it is also the reflection of the lack of interest the citizenship has in facing a problem that could be the cause of different ailments for the eight million people that live by its borders. The situation is not new: in 1871, the works to modify its course had begun; the goal was to make it navigable for overseas vessels and to clean its margins, because the floods caused by heavy rains made pollution reach the adjoining neighborhoods. During the 20th century, a lot of promises were made, but the launch of a decontamination plan was not until 2006, when a lawsuit reached the Supreme Court of Argentina, and it was decided that the administrations of the three jurisdictions that were part of the basin (the nation state, the province of Buenos Aires, and the city of Buenos Aires) had to create a comprehensive plan to clean the river up. Gabriela Merlinsky has a PhD in Social Sciences and works as a researcher at the Gino Germani research institute of the University of Buenos Aires, as well as at the National Scientific and Technical Research Council (known in Spanish as CONICET).For the last 20 years, Merlinsky has been analyzing the environ- mental situation of the Matanza-Riachuelo basin, as well as the social aspects that have made this problem invisible for over a century. Matías Alonso 4 5 NOVEMBER 2015 profiles Why did we have to wait until 2006 to see some work being done In the basin, there are countless organizations and numerous demands. The peo- to clean up the Riachuelo, if the river has been polluted for, at ple living by the margins in informal settlements has a wide range of problems: least, the last 100 years? health issues, transportation needs, and, in the last three or four years, there has been a stronger claim for access to housing. This is mainly because the lawsuit There are many historical reasons. The first one is the prevailing development involves a plan to develop the settlements and shantytowns in the Matanza-Ri- model, which has been highly productivist, centered in the intensive extraction achuelo basin, which will involve large population displacements. of natural resources. Besides, for the City of Buenos Aires, the Riachuelo has always been the border to a hostile place: the Conurbano. The river was the heart of Argentina’s first import substitution process, but before, through much of the 19th century, it was home to the industry and it was considered a sign of prog- ress. For instance, in the paintings by Quinquela Martín, as well as in poetry and literature, the dark color of the river’s water was considered something good, something that had become part of the urban landscape. How and when did this point of view change? By the end of the 1990s, I used to work at the Environment and Sustainable Development Secretariat, at the City of Buenos Aires. It was one of the city’s first In connection with transport, do you believe that approving the environmental areas, and it had a program to clean up the river, but it existed only navigation of the Riachuelo would raise awareness about the in paper, there were no concrete measures or actions. The big change came with recovery of the basin? the new millennium, in the light of many environmental conflicts in the coun- try (such as Esquel and Gualeguaychú), which had to do with sanitary landfills, The navigation issue is a very difficult one, because it depends on the size of access to clean water, the pollution of water streams, and, more recently, with the vessels. If we want to authorize ships with deep drafts to navigate the riv- fumigated villages. But the hinge was the intervention of the Supreme Court of er, we would need to dredge it, and that is something that experts on soil and Argentina, when it decided it had original jurisdiction in Beatriz Mendoza’s law- mud do not recommend, since the heavy metals present in the river would cause suit. By saying it was a State issue that had to do with article 41 of the National more pollution, when in contact with water and air. Today, there is navigation; Constitution, which has to do with the right to a healthy environment, and by ACUMAR has two small vessels that make trips every day to check the levees creating the institutional infrastructure (ACUMAR) to make sure this right was that contain floating litter. There are also trips organized by the City of Buenos preserved, the problem was made visible. Aires and ACUMAR, for people to get to know the river. Was the people that lived by the margins of the Riachuelo aware of At the beginning of the 20th century, people identified themselves their right to a healthy environment or were they more concerned with the Riachuelo. Does this still happen or has people turned with their right to housing? their backs to the river? In 2006, the lawsuit was over collective environmental damage. Over the years, People cannot be considered to belong to a homogeneous group; the river goes what is said in the judicial arena and what actually happens in the territory are through 14 different municipalities. Avellaneda has an interesting relationship two very different things, because the problem involves eight million inhabitants. with the river; it used to have yacht clubs and some of those spaces have been 6 7 NOVEMBER 2015 profiles recovered. No doubt La Boca identifies itself with the river; La Boca is the Ria- long it will take to recover the basin’s ecosystem. The environment law (Ley Gen- chuelo river. The people in Villa Jardín, in Lanus, lives in the oldest shantytown eral del Ambiente) says it should be reverted to its original form, but that seems of Buenos Aires, which is from the 1930s. There are films that depict that time, very unlikely. Intermediate goals are not clear, neither from the lawsuit, nor from and a lot has been written. In Matanza, there is an area with a very interesting ACUMAR. For instance, what “repairing the basin” means should be defined, nature reserve. Esteban Echeverría has Laguna de Rocha; many people worked what quality of water do we want, and how do we want the basin to be used. to make it a nature reserve, and today there are guided tours every weekend. Having said this, a lot has been done: there is less superficial litter, more acces- The area is huge, larger than the City of Buenos Aires. It depends on where, on sibility to the water stream and its margins, an inventory of the industries in the which neighborhoods and organizations, but I believe there are some interesting basin, and an expansion of the water grid. These measures are very important, identifications with the Riachuelo. However, I could not speak of all of them as but in order to see significant changes, we would need to consider a period of a unified whole. ACUMAR is doing a good work on these aspects. They orga- 30 to 40 years. Hence the concern about who will be responsible for making the nize activities and there is now a science fair at schools, for students to propose changes and whether it will become a State Policy. A critical point is the coordi- innovative projects for the river. There have been photo exhibitions, and the trips nation of the different sectors. To recover the basin, there should be policies for through the river have helped as well. There is a group of people that navigate the health, housing, infrastructure, and transport, all coordinated and involving all river on Sundays on their own account. the concerned jurisdictions. What is your evaluation of ACUMAR’s management? ACUMAR has representatives from the three main administrations involved (the nation state, the province of Buenos Aires, and the City of Buenos Aires), and, on a second level, it involves the other town councils as well. However, there are important political tensions between the parties, and agreements are needed in the long run, to be able to move forward. At the very least, the three main par- ties have to provide funds to clean up the river. Currently, ACUMAR is the co- ordinating body held accountable by the Justice, because the lawsuit is not over. It is controlled by a collegial body coordinated by the Argentine ombudsman that involves several government environment protection organizations. Howev- er, the truth is that in the last two years the Court has participated less actively. The Supreme Court removed the judge Luis Armella, who was in charge of the implementation, and now there is a judge that deals with budgetary issues, and another one in charge of the implementation of the measures.