Matanza-Riachuelo River
The Matanza Riachuelo River is a 64-km-long water course that originates in the Province of Buenos Aires, Argentina, forms the southern limit of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires and flows into the Silver river.
The river is known as Matanza for most of its length and Riachuelo after it crosses Avenida General Paz. He is usually designated by both names.
Throughout this route it receives the contribution of dozens of streams, such as Rodríguez, Morales, Chacón, Cañuelas, Aguirre, Ortega, Santa Catalina, La Paja and Del Rey, among the most important.
At its mouth in the Río de la Plata, the river gives its name to the famous neighborhood of La Boca, in the city of Buenos Aires.
The Matanza Riachuelo basin covers an approximate area of 2,200 km² and is one of the most densely populated areas in Argentina, where around 6 million people live, representing 15% of the country's population, located in the southern part of the City of Buenos Aires and in a large part of fourteen municipalities of the Province of Buenos Aires: Avellaneda, Lanús, Lomas de Zamora, La Matanza, Esteban Echeverría, Ezeiza, Cañuelas, Almirante Brown, Marcos Paz, General Las Heras, Merlo and San Vicente, where it is estimated that 30% of Argentina's GDP is generated.
Since the '70s of the XX century, the river has been one of the most serious environmental problems in Argentina, produced by untreated industrial waste dumped, sewage from the lack of sewage networks in much of the urban area of the Basin in the Province, and household waste without adequate collection.
Denunciations of pollution related to the river date back, however, to the early years of the XIX century, with the establishment of the first tanneries and salting rooms on the banks of the Riachuelo in the City of Buenos Aires and the Province.
Since 2008, the Matanza Riachuelo basin has been the center of a sanitation process carried out by the Matanza Riachuelo Basin Authority.
History
First settlers
For thousands of years the surroundings of the river were inhabited by groups of hunter-gatherers from the Pampas plain and its riverside areas, who built their homes (made of hides and wooden poles, easy to move) in the vicinity of rivers such as the Matanza Riachuelo, as well as other streams and lagoons, and on the hills close to these places.
When the Spanish arrived in 1536, various groups inhabited the Cuenca area and its surroundings, such as the Querandí, Guaraní, Charrúa and Chaná-Timbús.
Origin of name
The Riachuelo de los Navíos is mentioned by this name in the first chronicles of the Spanish expedition members who arrived.
At that time its upper section was also called "de la Matanza" because there was a battle between Querandí and Spaniards that involved a large number of deaths. Other authors point to the frequent slaughter of cattle produced in the area as the origin of the name.
First port of Buenos Aires
The proximity of the Riachuelo offered a source of drinking water and the possibility of having a natural port for mooring boats. This advantage caused both Pedro de Mendoza in 1536, and Juan de Garay in 1580, to choose the proximity to the Riachuelo to install the city of Buenos Aires.
But the condition of a plain river determined its low slope and its winding route, full of meanders. Its alluvial plain was occupied by recurring and extensive flooding, which gave rise to lagoons and marshes.
The south of the current City of Buenos Aires and many other sectors around the Matanza Riachuelo river remained almost uninhabited for these reasons, until well into the century XX.
The Ancient Mouth
The lower course of the Riachuelo in the 17th century was very different from what we know today. Near the current mouth, the course of the river turned northward, through the South Dock of Puerto Madero until it met the Río de la Plata in the vicinity of the current Lezama Park.
The old Boca del Riachuelo de los Navíos was located approximately at the level of the current Humberto I° street, in the San Telmo neighborhood, as a bank of mud, sand and a flooded island covered mainly with “juncales” it diverted the river, causing a bend to the north almost 90° with respect to the Riachuelo, towards the disappeared Isla de los Pozos, today covered by the docks and the fills made for the construction of Puerto Madero.
In the 1780s, a passage was opened between the aforementioned bend and the Río de la Plata, called "boca del Trajinista", forming since then the current mouth of the Riachuelo, and an island on the left bank.
19th century: an agro-export economy
Between 1800 and 1810, livestock activity became important in the area of the mouth of the Riachuelo. Slaughterhouses, tanneries and salting rooms were installed on the banks of the river, which served as a natural port. Also the first productions of soap, candles and other derivatives of leather and fats converted into fuel.
With the country's independence, an export economy began to develop, and production establishments for salted meat and leather grew, first, and later wool, many of them located on the banks of the river.[1]
Starting in 1860, the growth of the railway network in the country, articulated with ports such as Riachuelo, allowed the development of the export of cereals produced in the humid pampas, which by the end of the century had become one of the great engines of the Argentine economy, along with the export of meat processed in refrigerators.
Beginnings of contamination
The first official order to clean up the river was issued by the Primera Junta in 1811. Since then, government measures have been repeated for the same purpose, pointing to a persistent environmental problem. Among other official orders, it is ordered to remove sunken ships in the port and expel the most polluting activities from the vicinity of the city, such as tanneries and salting rooms. The prohibitions on throwing waste from slaughterhouse work into the river are also repeated.
In 1868 and 1871, the epidemics of yellow fever and cholera produced enormous numbers of deaths among the inhabitants of the area. The Riachuelo is pointed out as a focus of infections, and the Buenos Aires Legislature orders the suspension of the activities of its salting pans. This was one of the first debates on environmental contamination in Argentina, held between the owners of salting pans, national authorities, doctors and chemists.
First infrastructure works
With the growth of port activity and the export economy, projects to expand the Riachuelo port begin to be formulated.
Its mouth was very shallow, so most of the large ships could not enter and had to dock in the Río de la Plata.
In 1871 the Legislature of the province of Buenos Aires enacted a law to carry out canalization, cleaning and modernization works in the Riachuelo port.
These works included excavating the entrance channel, rectifying and widening its mouth, building a dock and a dock, and installing davits to lift the boats.
In 1878 the port of Riachuelo was declared open for the navigation of overseas ships. The first regular passenger ship, the steamer Italia, entered the Boca del Riachuelo on January 25, 1883, amid great celebrations.
As part of the works carried out, in the mid-1880s the meander of the Vuelta de Rocha was modified to turn it into an anchorage, taking its current shape.
20th century: industry and immigration
Since the end of the XIX century, both banks of the Riachuelo were one of the great stages of the country's social transformation, driven by due to the growth of exports, and the massive arrival of immigrants from Europe and the north of the country.
The port of the Riachuelo offered a landscape made up of boats, barracks, workshops, shipyards and factories used daily, from one shore to the other, by tens of thousands of workers.
El Riachuelo was the center of a dense web of social, political, sports and artistic organizations promoted by immigrant workers. From these experiences emerged soccer teams, unions, anarchist and socialist workers' organizations, and art schools such as those of the La Boca painters and the People's Painters, among many others.
The area was also one of the development centers of the national industry through the progressive installation of refrigeration companies, food, soap, glass, match factories, electroplating workshops, steel companies, and tanneries, among others.
Two new ports
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The growth of exports promoted new projects to expand the transport capacity of the old port of Riachuelo around 1880.
These projects included the creation of two new ports at the mouth of the Riachuelo, Puerto Madero in the City of Buenos Aires and the Port of Dock Sud in Avellaneda.
Work began in the early 1880s; the last section of Puerto Madero was completed in 1897, while the Port of Dock Sud was inaugurated in 1905.
Over time, these new ports, along with the Puerto Nuevo de Retiro inaugurated a few years later, replaced the Riachuelo port, which progressively declined in activity throughout the century XX, until its final closure by the Military Dictatorship in 1976.
The rectification
Simultaneously with the creation of the new ports of Madero and Dock Sud, in 1888 the rectification of the Riachuelo began, which changed its physiognomy and landscape.
The project sought to rectify, widen and channel the Riachuelo -that is, increase its depth or depth- from the bridge of the Ferrocarril del Sud in Barracas to km 33 in the Province, at the height of La Matanza.
And he proposed eliminating the meanders in the natural course of the river to facilitate its navigation.
Its objective was to decongest the traffic of boats from the Riachuelo and create a new industrial area in the southern sector of the City and the Province, through the entry of large ships of at least 200 tons.
At first, the concession was granted to the Compañía General Pobladora, made up of English and Argentine companies linked to the port and the railways; but the works never began. The project was involved in allegations of corruption and negotiated for the sale of land adjacent to the riverbed.
In the following years, the direction of the project changed hands without any progress. Although many of the lands from the concession began to be parceled out and sold, and gave rise to the neighborhoods of Villa Soldati, Villa Lugano and Villa Riachuelo in the City of Buenos Aires, and other urbanizations in Lanús and Lomas de Zamora.
In 1913 the State decided to intervene assuming the works through the General Directorate of Studies and Works of the Riachuelo, dependent on the Ministry of Public Works.
By then, works on the "industrial canal" They added a new objective: to eliminate the meanders of the Riachuelo and channel it to deal with the frequent floods that affected its banks, and periodically made them uninhabitable, sometimes even reaching neighborhoods far from it. (For example, in the exceptional floods of 1884, 1900 and 1911).
Over the following years, the rectification of the Riachuelo was finally carried out. The new Victorino de la Plaza, De Monti (former Uriburu or "Puente Alsina") and La Noria bridges were built. And in the 30s, the project for an industrial area associated with the Riachuelo channel was relaunched.
From the late 1880s to the 1930s, the Dock Sud and the Riachuelo channel brought together many of the most important industrial establishments in the country, such as the Vasena metallurgical, TAMET and Military Fabrications.
But the need for the rectification project was questioned. Towards the 40s the industries stopped settling in this sector and began to orient themselves towards other areas of the urban area of Buenos Aires, especially its northern axis.
The last section of the rectification between the Uriburu Bridge and the La Noria Bridge was finally completed in 1944.
Abandonment and contamination
The contamination and general deterioration of the Matanza Riachuelo and its banks began in the mid-XIX century.
This originated in the establishments linked to the meat and leather industry installed on the banks of the Riachuelo, in the City and the Province.
The situation was aggravated by various processes linked to urban and population growth without adequate planning or investment in infrastructure.
This produced an uneven development of urban services in the area –home electricity, public lighting, drinking water and, especially, sewers–: while the center of the City of Buenos Aires and its adjacent areas were covered, the neighborhoods peripherals were relegated; the southern area of the City and the neighborhoods of the Province maintained this peripheral condition until well into the XX century, and in some cases up to the XXI century.
To this was added the decision of the Buenos Aires authorities to install all kinds of "unhealthy activities" far from the center, in the south and southwest of the city; for example, the slaughterhouse in Parque Patricios, inaugurated in 1872, and the burning of waste from the same neighborhood, transferred to Villa Soldati in the '50s, also in the vicinity of the Riachuelo.
Since the mid-20th century, other processes affected the river. The economic crises produced the collapse of the industrial fabric on the banks of the Riachuelo, both in the City and in the Province. The river landscape was populated with dilapidated or abandoned industrial infrastructure; many productive establishments continued to operate in increasingly precarious conditions, without State control, in less and less traveled areas.
The banks of the river were used at the discretion of many companies, as waste disposal sites, effluents, illegal landfills, etc.
They also became a place of informal access to housing by impoverished social sectors, without other means to access it, through the installation of precarious neighborhoods and settlements, without services.
As Gabriela Merlinsky says, the absence of regulations on land use and the lack of environmental control mechanisms on the part of the State, generated the degradation of the area, and contributed to creating "a landscape of urban segregation and environmental".
The period of greatest deterioration began in the '70s when these processes worsened even more. The country's deindustrialization policy of the Military Dictatorship was accompanied by the definitive closure of the old port of Riachuelo. The landscape at the mouth of the river was, since then, that of a gigantic cemetery of ships and abandoned junk, in a watercourse increasingly affected by sewage pollution. The river remained for decades covered in decomposing waste.
The contamination of the Matanza Riachuelo Basin was the result of this sum of processes: uncontrolled industrial activity, the incomplete development of the sewage network and the lack of collection and treatment of urban solid waste, aggravated by the social consequences, economic and urban aspects of this widespread deterioration.
The '90s: Broken Promises
In 1993, Secretary of the Environment María Julia Alsogaray presented a project to clean up the Riachuelo to be completed in a thousand days.
Since the early '90s, environmental problems had begun to be debated in Argentina. In 1991 the Secretariat of Natural Resources and Sustainable Development of the Nation was created and, from the beginning, the contamination of this water course appeared as one of the environmental problems with the greatest impact in the country.
The project of the National Government was never carried out. At the beginning of 2000, the cleanup plan for the Riachuelo was paralyzed and the official was accused of illicit enrichment and embezzlement of funds that should have been allocated to the environmental management of the river. (According to the complaints, during her management, the Riachuelo Committee handled more than 35 million dollars, of which almost 22 were for & # 34; technical and professional services & # 34; of consultants close to Minister Alsogaray).
During the 2001 crisis, the funds from an international loan granted to the country to carry out environmental quality studies in the Basin had to be used to finance emergency social aid plans implemented by the National Government.
ACUMAR and the Mendoza Cause
In 2004, a complaint from residents of the Villa Inflamable neighborhood in Dock Sud, Avellaneda, located near the Riachuelo, started a legal process for the contamination of the companies and its effects on health.
The Mendoza Cause. as it was known, marked a historic milestone in judicial processes related to the collective right to a healthy environment in Argentina. The Ruling of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation in this case led to the creation of a Comprehensive Basin Sanitation Plan, prepared and carried out since then by the Matanza Riachuelo Basin Authority (ACUMAR) dependent on the National Government. (See Sanitation: the Mendoza Cause).
Territory
The Matanza Riachuelo river extends for 64 km, in which it crosses from rural landscapes at its source to completely urbanized spaces at its mouth..
The river rises at the confluence of the Castro and Los Pozos streams, in the Buenos Aires district of Cañuelas, between grasslands and wooded areas. Then it crosses fourteen municipalities of the Conurbano, in the Province of Buenos Aires, until it forms the limit between Avellaneda and the City of Buenos Aires in its final stretch.
Throughout its course, it receives the contribution of numerous minor courses of different sizes, forming a basin that covers approximately 2,200 km2.
Among these tributaries, the Morales, Cañuelas, Aguirre and Ortega streams stand out. The Cildáñez stream, in the area of Mataderos and Lugano, is rectified and partially piped.
Tour
Upper Basin
In its first section, the river crosses a rural landscape of grasslands where agricultural activities such as cattle, cows, pigs and sheep are carried out, as well as poultry farming. Many establishments are dedicated to pastures and cereal planting, dairy farm management and food production. This sector of the Basin includes an area linked by streams to the Matanza River, extending over a large part of the districts of Cañuelas, General Las Heras and Marcos Paz, where its main population centers are located.
In the Cuenca Alta numerous tourist and cultural activities related to the countryside take place. The ranches Santa Elena, La Señalada and La Eloísa, among others, in General Las Heras, offer lodging and gastronomy for their visitors. In Estaban Escheverría the Meeting of Traditionalist Centers is held annually and in Marcos Paz the Regional Ham Festival, to name a few of the events and places of interest linked to the rural traditions of the area.
Middle Basin
From that moment on, the river enters an increasingly densely populated area, where the rural landscape gives way to urban centers and production centers concentrated in factories, workshops and industrial parks. This sector is made up for the most part by the municipalities of La Matanza, Ezeiza, Esteban Echeverría and Lomas de Zamora.
In them, urbanized areas coexist, with low-density neighborhoods and also large extensions of countryside still not incorporated into the urban fabric, within which are natural areas such as the Laguna de Rocha Natural Reserve in Esteban Echeverría and the Forests from Ezeiza.
This section of the Matanza River between Ezeiza and General Paz Avenue today has little public use, but since the '40s it formed an axis of natural areas for popular leisure, such as the Ezeiza Recreation Center, with its pools and picnic areas on the banks of the river, created by the National State. Following the river, between Ingeniero Budge (Lomas de Zamora) and Villa Celina (La Matanza) in those years various unions and clubs created saltwater pools and sports centers used until the '80s, when they were closed due to problems with pollution.
Today this sector lost many of its properties dedicated to leisure and, except in the Ezeiza Forests, it does not incorporate the banks of the river as an accessible public space. Since the '90s in Ingeniero Budge on the Matanza River, the textile products fair known as La Salada has been operating, one of the largest in Latin America.
At the height of the Ezeiza Forests, the rectified section of the river begins that continues until the height of Puente Alsina in the City of Buenos Aires. This construction of a rectified channel was carried out by the National State in works extended until the '40s, aimed at creating a commercial navigation route that was never implemented and was finally abandoned.
The river channeling works were also essential to contain periodic flooding. Thanks to these works, it was possible to advance urbanization in the area where the river overflows in the southern zone of the City of Buenos Aires (Villa Soldati, Villa Lugano, Villa Riachuelo) as well as in Lanús and Lomas de Zamora, in the Province of Buenos Aires..
Lower Basin
After crossing the La Noria bridge, at the height of General Paz Avenue, the Matanza River changes its name to Riachuelo.
This section of the river separates the City of Buenos Aires from the Municipalities of Lomas de Zamora, Lanús and Avellaneda. On the left bank of the City, there are large green spaces such as the Ribera Sur Park and the Lake Lugano Reserve. These areas were part of the extensive area of lowlands and lagoons known until the middle of the XX century as the Bañados de Flores, where permanently the Riachuelo was overflowing.
Since the beginning of the century, this southern area of the City was the center of various urban design projects, such as the Great Park of the South thought of as a public green space analogous to the Bosques de Palermo, which proposed to integrate the City with the Province through natural areas located along the banks of the Matanza River. These projects were eventually abandoned.
Different smaller-scale works were carried out in its place. Along the river runs Av. 27 de Febrero, which includes a narrow pedestrian path on the tree-lined bank of the river. Today the Manuel Gálvez Autodrome and the Villa Olímpica sports venue are located on this section. Lake Lugano and the lagoon located inside the Autodromo were excavated over the old meanders of the Riachuelo during the rectification works, and are remains of that natural morphology. The Cauce Viejo del Riachuelo, in the Ribera Sur Park, is the last stretch of the natural course of the Riachuelo in the City, which runs for 800m in a green area.
On the Provincia side, on the other side, is the neighborhood of Villa Fiorito, in Lomas de Zamora, the birthplace of Diego Armando Maradona.
The Riachuelo continues on entering Lanús and the Pompeya neighborhood in the City from the Alsina Bridge. The landscape becomes increasingly dense in its buildings, in a sector on the banks of the Riachuelo where some emblematic factories of the Argentine industry are located, such as TAMET and Fabricaciones Militares.
From the Alsina Bridge, the banks of the river present abundant vegetation in shrubs and trees, recovered as a public space.
At the height of Barracas, the river crosses Villa 21 - 24, one of the largest in the City of Buenos Aires. From the Pueyrredón Viejo Bridge, the river enters the old port area, where warehouses, barracks and factories can be seen, as well as large shipyard sheds, belonging to the heyday of the Riachuelo. After crossing the Barraca Peña Railway Bridge, the river enters the section best known by visitors to Buenos Aires, corresponding to the Barrio de la Boca, Caminito and the Transbordador Bridge.
The mouth of the Riachuelo finally opens into the Río de la Plata, at the same time that it opens on its sides to the channels of the port of Dock Sud and the South Dock of Puerto Madero.
Hydrology
The Matanza Riachuelo basin drains into the Río de la Plata, making it subject to the effect of tides.
It is bordered to the northwest by the Reconquista river basin, to the southwest by the Salado river basin, to the southeast by the Samborombón river basin and the upper Río de la Plata watershed, and to the northeast by the Río de la Plata, where it ends.
Downstream from the La Noria bridge, where the main course changes its name from Matanza to Riachuelo, this forms the boundary between the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires and the provincial districts of Lomas de Zamora, Lanús and Avellaneda.
Throughout the lower and middle basins there are frequent floods, the main ones affected are informal settlements. Floods have two main natural causes: the Sudestadas, rainfall and the natural slope of the river, which add up to to the lack of impermeability of the soils due to urbanization and the absence of urban infrastructure that allows water drainage.
The Matanza Riachuelo Basin Authority draws up a hazard and vulnerability map that allows decision-making and risk management in the face of these floods.
Biodiversity
The Matanza Riachuelo Basin comprises wide extensions of natural areas along the banks of the main course and its streams, with an important presence of native flora and fauna.
Among the native vegetation of the Basin, we can mention the Creole willow, the rush, the cortadera, the logging and the Ibirá-Iputezúo ceibo.
Regarding the fauna, we can find various species of birds such as the biguá, the taguató and the white heron, which are good indicators of the state of the environment.
Other animal species that we can find are mammals such as the pampas gray fox and the nutria, and reptiles such as the overo lizard and the snake-necked turtle.
In the Matanza Basin there are various natural areas protected for their biodiversity. (See Protected Areas of the Basin).
Wetlands
In February 2019, ACUMAR entered into an agreement with the National Council for Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET) to jointly carry out the Inventory of Wetlands of the Matanza Riachuelo Basin with the aim of delimiting, characterizing and typifying them, as a tool for the environmental ordering of the territory and the sustainable management of these areas.
This project is part of the National Inventory of Wetlands, a process initiated by the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development of the Nation in 2016.
In this case, ACUMAR provides support through management and assistance in the development of management plans, environmental education plans and monitoring. In addition, areas that still do not have effective protection in the territory were detected, for which reason ACUMAR accompanies and supports efforts for their designation and protection in the near future.
Pollution
According to the Comprehensive Sanitation Plan for the Matanza Riachuelo Basin (PISA, 2010), river pollution comes from three main sources:
a) industrial activity and other productive establishments without adequate treatment of their effluents;
b) sewage produced by homes without connection to a sanitation network, and
c) solid urban waste of household origin.
These processes affect the main course of the river through the contaminated liquids contributed by activities carried out in its vicinity, but also in the vicinity of the dozens of streams, sewers and stormwater that flow into the main course of the river, with their own pollutant load.
According to PISA, environmental degradation in the Basin is the result of "an unplanned development process that in turn resulted in urban growth incompatible with its immediate surroundings, from the first towns to the present day&# 34;.
Industries and other productive establishments
In the Middle and Upper Basins, most of the contaminants come from animal production in corrals or sheds, and from plants that manufacture dairy products and agriculture, to which are added some industries, mainly refrigerators and tanneries that They dump most of their effluents into the river, untreated.
In the Lower Basin, there are various productive and industrial activities that generate polluting effluents. Among the most important we can mention tanneries, electroplating workshops, steel mills, food manufacturing, plastics, industrial laundries, production of household chemicals, detergents, soaps, cosmetic products, etc.
In 2022, according to ACUMAR there are 5,368 productive establishments registered in the Basin; 1,435 were identified as Polluting Agents; Of these, 706 have already been readapted to stop contaminating.
Sewers and other sources of organic matter
Organic pollution is one of the largest contributions of pollution received by the river along its route.
This originates, above all, in the domestic sewage of the urban area without coverage of the sanitation network, which drains through precarious connections, either directed directly to the main course of the river, or that drains through blind wells, where the liquids drain, in turn, to the groundwater tables, from where they also drain into the main course.
The excess organic matter received by the river produces a decrease in the oxygen concentration levels in the water, due to an overload of organic matter in the water that, when it decomposes naturally, ends up completely consume their oxygen.
This prevents the natural development of its ecosystem due to the inability to house aquatic life, with exceptions such as turtles.
In addition to the sewers, organic waste is also contributed by intensive agricultural establishments in the Middle and Upper Basin such as feedlots, dairy farms and chicken farms.
For this reason, in the Middle and Lower Basins the water is in a state of anoxia, that is, values close to zero milligrams of oxygen per liter of water are measured, where aquatic life becomes impossible.
Urban Solid Waste
The waste generated as a consequence of the activities carried out in the territory constitutes another source of contamination that is aggravated by its incorrect disposal in the territory.
Currently, approximately 10,000 tons of waste are generated per day in the Matanza Riachuelo Basin.
In the peri-urban area, the appearance of open-air dumps contributes organic compounds from household waste, also synthetic and other foreign to biological systems (called xenobiotics), present in detergents, emulsifiers and preservatives.
This waste, improperly disposed of in open-air dumps throughout the territory, contributes waste to the course of streams and the main course of the river, washed away by rain and wind, and transported by channels, pluvial and sewers. Also, they generate a filtration of rainwater contaminated by garbage through the underground layers that, in turn, contribute contaminants to the courses of the Basin.
In 2018, ACUMAR closed the last of the existing macro-dumps (more than 5 hectares) in the Municipalities of the Basin, which received up to 1,200 tons of waste per month.
Sanitation: the Mendoza Cause
The clean-up process of the Matanza Riachuelo Basin began within the framework of the Mendoza Cause, one of the most far-reaching legal processes for environmental issues in the country, taken as a reference at the national and international level.
The Cause gave rise to the deepest legal sentence in Argentine history in environmental matters handed down against the National State and the companies responsible for the contamination.
And it forced the National State, among other things, to initiate a sanitation process extended far beyond the original area affected by the lawsuit (Dock Sud), to cover the entire territory of the Matanza Riachuelo Basin, understood as a system natural integrated.
Origin of the Cause
In July 2004, a group of residents from the Province of Buenos Aires and the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires —including Beatriz S. Mendoza, whose name appears at the top of the file— filed a legal action against the National State, the Province of Buenos Aires, the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires and 44 companies claiming damages suffered as a result of the contamination of the Matanza-Riachuelo Basin.
Likewise, they requested the recomposition of the environment and a series of precautionary measures in order to ensure the object of the lawsuit.
On June 20, 2006, the Supreme Court of Justice of the Argentine Nation declared itself competent in the trial for environmental damage of collective incidence in the Matanza Riachuelo Basin.
At the same time, the Court declared itself incompetent to continue the process for the individual damages of each of the affected residents, who were recommended to go to the judges of each place where they live, to obtain compensation for their individualized damages.
This is how the trial known as the Mendoza Cause began, in which the participation as third parties of both the National Ombudsman's Office and various organizations (Fundación Ambiente y Recursos Naturales, Association of Neighbors of La Boca, Centro de Legal Studies, Greenpeace Argentina Foundation, Metropolitan Foundation, among others).
Creation of ACUMAR
In December 2006, the Matanza Riachuelo Basin Authority was created by National Law, chaired by the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development. ACUMAR participated in the public hearings and presented the Comprehensive Environmental Sanitation Plan for the Matanza Riachuelo Basin (PISA) to the Judge. The court asked the University of Buenos Aires for the participation of its suitable professionals, with the necessary and appropriate background and knowledge regarding the various issues involved, and that they proceed to report on the feasibility of the plan.
On July 8, 2008, the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation issued a final judgment in the Mendoza case. In relation to "the specific claim on recomposition and prevention of damage to the environment", the Judgment obliges the issuance of urgent, definitive and effective decisions. This is an atypical collective sentence, since it contains a general condemnation that falls on the ACUMAR, the National State, the Province of Buenos Aires and the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, "equally responsible in concurrent mode", for compliance with the program established in the resolution:
"to pursue three simultaneous objectives:
(1) the improvement of the quality of life of the inhabitants of the basin;
2) the recomposition of the environment in the Basin in all its components (water, air, and soils) and
3) the prevention of damage with sufficient and reasonable degree of prediction."
The process of execution of the sentence handed down by the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation was put in charge of the Federal Court of Quilmes under the responsibility of Dr. Luis Armella.
ACCUMULATE
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The Matanza Riachuelo Basin Authority (ACUMAR) is the inter-jurisdictional entity of public law created by the National Executive Law 26.168 and adhered to by the Legislatures of the Province of Buenos Aires and the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, which is responsible for the implementation of the Integral Plan of Environmental Sanitation of the Matanza-Riachuelo River Basin.
The Cuenca Authority is composed of a Board of Directors chaired by the Ministry of Public Works and representatives of the three jurisdictions, a Municipal Council with representatives of the 15 municipalities that make up the basin, and a Commission of Social Participation as a focal point for the Plan with civil society, open to its integration by any organization with interests in the territorial area of the basin. In addition, a Forum of Universities of the Matanza Riachuelo Basin (FUCUMAR) has been formed as an area of interaction between universities linked by their knowledge to the problem of the basin and the group of experts responsible for the Plan.
The Cuenca Authority also has an Executive Directorate and a General Secretariat whose function is to provide a link between all the actors that make up the Integral Plan of Sanitation of the Matanza Riachuelo Watershed.The Matanza Riachuelo in art, music and literature
Around 1830, the artist and engineer Charles H. Pellegrini made a series of watercolors and lithographs that are mentioned as the first in which the appearance of the Riachuelo port was captured: Barraca Peña. Vuelta de Rocha (1833) and Riachuelo. Primitive bridge of Barracas (1830).
A few years later, the chronicles of travelers and writers began to mention this area as one of the most picturesque corners of the city. Its landscape stood out for being one of its few places where the river bank could be seen along with the display of its social life.
Driven by these views, the Riachuelo and its old port occupied a central place in the imaginary XIX century since the mid- of the City of Buenos Aires, an influence that remains in force today.
El Riachuelo, inspiration for artists
Since the end of the XIX century, La Boca has housed a large number of painters and artists from other disciplines.
These were influenced and promoted by a number of meeting spaces and training in trades created within the immigrant cultural and mutual support organizations installed in La Boca, especially within the Italian community.
These offered workers the possibility of accessing an education in arts and crafts outside of academic schools or formal education.
One of these institutions was the Unión de la Boca, where in the early years of the XX century he began to give classes the Italian master Alfredo Lazzari, who spread new practices such as easel painting in the open air and landscapes of urban themes, especially the painting of scenes of the Riachuelo and its surroundings.
Benito Quinquela Martín and Fortunato Lacámera were two of Lazzari's best-known students, among many others, such as Arturo Maresca, Santiago Stagnaro and Vicente Vento, to name just a few, all coming from working-class families and immigrants from the neighborhood.
By the 1920s, Quinquela's national and international success consolidated the art of La Boca, which since then constituted the only painting school in the City of Buenos Aires linked to one of its neighborhoods.
This tradition of artists linked to the Riachuelo left an imprint that still endures. It is visible on the banks of Vuelta de Rocha, where the color of the buildings built on Quinquela's initiative facing the river unfolds, such as the School, the Museum of Fine Arts of La Boca or the Teatro de la Ribera. Also in Caminito, the street converted into an open-air museum at the impulse of Quinquela himself, still today one of the most visited points for tourism in the City.
Boquense art is present in numerous public collections such as the National Museum of Fine Arts and the Tigre Museum, and other private ones such as the Mose Collection.
In addition, and as part of this tradition, many museums and galleries are located in the surroundings of the Riachuelo, vindicating the history of the neighborhood associated with its artists, among others the Marco Museum and the Proa Foundation.
In 2012, the La Boca Arts District was created under the Ministry of Culture of the City of Buenos Aires. The District promotes the visual, performing, literary, and musical arts through policies such as tax exemptions and preferential credit lines for cultural establishments, among others.
Currently, the District is made up of more than 15 art galleries, 11 museums, 6 theaters, 4 foundations, 7 residences, 7 educational and research spaces, 100 artist workshops, 9 cultural spaces, and 9 dance and music.
The port: tango, nostalgia and underworld
The growth of activity at the end of the 19th century attracted a huge number of immigrants who came to the port of the Riachuelo to live on its shores, and aroused the curiosity of chroniclers and writers.
In these years, the “aquatic landscapes” of the Riachuelo were incorporated into the literary images of Buenos Aires: “a world crossed by immigration, the conventillo, color, poverty, industry, boats and the river as door to the unknown."
Scenes from the port appear in various chronicles published in the newspapers of the time, such as those by Félix Lima about immigrant workers and their canteens.
In the novel Historia de arrabal (1922), Manuel Gálvez makes a detailed portrait of this area, where Maciel Island, the La Blanca refrigerator and the El Cocodrilo restaurant appear, among other emblematic places, in addition to the groups of Italian, Spanish, Austrian and Arab immigrants...
In many of his famous “Etchings”, published since the late 1920s in the newspaper El Mundo, Roberto Arlt described picturesque scenes of the port, among the noise and filth of industry, the overcrowded tenements and the overflowing sound of the new machinery, without ceasing to be enthusiastic:
“You have to go to the port, if only to bathe in the travel light. (...) In the port you can breathe. In the port you drink landscape. In the port, childhood dreams are recovered. (...) A lazy morning on the dikes produces the same effects on the imagination as an injection of vitamins. The vigor of light lifts the lid of the heavens that appear higher and more perfect. (Arlt, 1933).
“The day you are sour, bored, go to the port; but not to handle bags... Sit on the edge of a wall; Support the scene on the trestle of a crane and stay for an hour with your gaze lost in that forest of masts crisscrossed at all angles by cables and ropes…” (Arlt, 1931).
“Wherever you go, you see nothing but the triumph of the machine and fire: foundries of iron and glass; soap, nitric acid and bolt factories. The metal saws screeched continuously; large winches move reddish metallic masses; a willow, a curve of water, a boat... And then the enormous panorama with the three staggered chimneys of a factory that send whirlwinds of smoke into the sky in the effort of invisible but cyclopean machinery. Beyond the vision of the masts of Buenos Aires... (Arlt, 1929).
For the poet Raúl González Tuñón, the port of Riachuelo was a Buenos Aires “underground”, scene of crimes and marginality, where the circus, opium, prostitution and tango coexisted.
But, as in Arlt, “the desire to preserve the image of the Riachuelo as a door to the world, as a cosmopolitan, traveling and pleasant area that invited adventure: persisted:
“Pedro de Mendoza Street, gloomy still lifes,
People who come from far seas
and from distant rivers
and the office in the altars
of alcoholism and delusions” (“Etching”, 1972).
“Alsina Bridge:
It cuts your creek—like a chinstrap.
Food for police reports […]
Thieves and poets are not afraid of you”
[…]
Take pity on sick dogs
and from time to time you steal the moon,
for men who always look down
they see you reflected in the Riachuelo”. (The devil's violin, 1972).
“In that little boat, tired and ailing from so much sailing, there is someone who nostalgically contemplates the sky. What weighs on the sadness of this sea lion? Give that old man a ship; give her two crew members and set sail tomorrow with the sails in the wind…” (Idem).
Much of this vision of the city is taken up again in tangos set in this area, such as the classic "Nieblas del Riachuelo".
Protected or protected areas of the Basin
Although the Matanza Riachuelo Basin is an environmental unit highly impacted by the various anthropic activities developed in its territory, it still maintains some original biological components.
Environmental protection areas are areas identified within the Matanza Riachuelo Basin that were prioritized to take concrete conservation and management actions, due to the presence of biodiversity in them.
These are not only areas that are already formally protected, but also others that, due to different ecological, archaeological, paleontological, or water aspects, or as green spaces for recreation or citizen recreation, are considered of interest for their conservation.
So far there are eleven priority areas for the conservation of biodiversity. Of these, some already have a formal legal figure of protection (within one of the Categories of Protected Area Systems) and others are wetlands in their greater extension.
Formally protected areas
- Reserva Natural Municipal Santa Catalina (Lomas de Zamora)
- Provincial Natural Reserve Santa Catalina (Lomas de Zamora)
- Reserva Natural, Integral y Mixta Laguna de Rocha (Esteban Echeverría)
- Natural Reserve Evita City Forests (La Matanza)
- Natural Reserve Urbana de Morón (Morón)
- Lagunas de San Vicente Reserve (San Vicente)
- Reserva Paleontológica "Francisco P. Moreno" (Marcos Paz)
- Ecological Reserve Lago Lugano (Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires)
There are other protected natural areas very close to the Basin, such as the Guardia del Juncal de Cañuelas.
Other areas are not legally recognized but are managed as green spaces (Bosques de Ezeiza National Recreation Center), or are proposed as areas to be protected by different groups of residents and activists: Laferrere Aerodrome (La Matanza), Cauce Viejo del Riachuelo (City of Buenos Aires), the Camino de las Flores (Almirante Brown), among others.
Bridges
Throughout its course the river includes numerous pedestrian, rail and vehicle bridges. (See Bridges of the Matanza Riachuelo).
Relocation of neighborhoods and settlements on the banks of the river
The Comprehensive Sanitation Plan for the Matanza Riachuelo Basin defined the relocation of 17,000 families whose homes were located within the Matanza Riachuelo towpath, within 35 meters of each bank. These neighborhoods were incorporated into the relocation plan carried out by ACUMAR together with the different jurisdictions that make up the Basin. Currently, the process of relocating homes in the Matanza Riachuelo Basin has 75% compliance in relation to the homes located on the towpath, and 35% of the total homes defined in the plan formulated in 2010.
The following neighborhoods or settlements were relocated along the towpath of the City of Buenos Aires:
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- The settlement Luján (located in Pedro de Luján 2364 in the neighborhood of Barracas) of 44 families was completely relocated in July 2011.
- The settlement The Pueblito (located under the Alsina Bridge, in the New Pompeya neighborhood), consisting of 128 families, was completely relocated in January 2012 to a housing complex of Bajo Flores.
- The settlement Magaldi (located on Augustine Magaldi 2200, in the neighborhood of Barracas) of 116 families, according to the IVC, was completely relocated on 31 July 2012.
In the settlement Villa 26, made up of 215 families, Acumar built houses in 2014 the first 125 families of Villa 26 were relocated in January 2015 in apartments built by the same neighbors.
The settlement Villa 21-24 which is made up of 1,334 families is currently in the process of relocation.
The relocation of the settlements on the banks of the river in the Province was completed in the municipalities of Avellaneda, Lomas de Zamora and La Matanza.
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