Civil Society, Development & Aid, Environment, Headlines, Latin America & the Caribbean

ENVIRONMENT-ARGENTINA: Activists Call for Results, Not Just Words

Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES, May 5 2006 (IPS) - Argentine President Néstor Kirchner received the support Friday of most of the country’s provincial governments in the conflict with Uruguay over the construction of two paper pulp mills on a border river, and promised that his government would make sustainable development a state policy.

Addressing a huge demonstration held in the town of Gualeguaychú, which is located 25 km from the Uruguay River in the northeastern province of Entre Ríos, Kirchner committed himself to following “a policy of economic growth marked by equity, which incorporates the environmental dimension in all government actions” and “elevates the current standards of taking care of the environment.”

The president, flanked by his entire cabinet, underlined the governors’ support for his administration’s decision to file suit Thursday against Uruguay at the International Court of Justice in The Hague – the first time Argentina has turned to that international body.

The Argentine government accuses Uruguay of violating the 1975 bilateral treaty that governs the Uruguay River – which forms the border between the two countries – three times, by authorising the construction of the two pulp factories and a river port without properly consulting Argentina. It also complains that an independent environmental impact study was not carried out.

Among the few governors who were not present at the rally was the governor of San Luis, Alberto Rodríguez Saá, who criticised the government’s decision to resort to the International Court of Justice.

On the other hand, the president had the support of opposition leaders like the governor of Mendoza, Julio Cobos, who urged his fellow governors “to continue exploiting natural resources and to continue producing paper, but in a responsible manner.”

Between 40,000 and 75,000 people – depending on the source – listened to Kirchner, waving the Argentine flag and holding up signs reading “NO to the pulp factories, YES to life”.

Most of the country’s governors, mayors, legislators and union leaders expressed their support for Kirchner. The governors and vice-governors signed a document titled “Sustainable development to consolidate a policy of growth with equity.”

On May 25, Uruguayan President Tabaré Vázquez will travel with his own cabinet, to hold a Council of Ministers session open to the public in Fray Bentos, the capital of the western Uruguayan province of Río Negro.

The two pulp factories are being built by companies from Finland and Spain – Metsa-Botnia and ENCE, respectively – on the Uruguay River near Fray Bentos. They will produce a total of 1.5 million tons of paper pulp a year. The foreign firms and the Uruguayan government claim that they will use the latest technology, to minimise pollution.

The document signed by the governors in Argentina expresses support for the administration’s suit before The Hague and the aim to work together to make sustainable development a government policy and incorporate environmental questions into the agenda at all levels of government.

Kirchner and the provincial leaders also proposed a strengthening of the country’s environmental institutions, and the optimisation of the use of mechanisms such as land zoning, environmental impact studies, oversight and monitoring systems, environmental education, and citizen participation in decision-making.

These commitments should sound like music to the ears of environmental organisations. But activists consulted by IPS said they preferred to wait for concrete action, and not just words.

Paula Brufman, coordinator of Greenpeace Argentina’s toxics campaign, told IPS that “it is really incoherent to make joint declarations about the importance of the environment with provincial governors that are anything but environmentalists.”

Brufman said the Kirchner administration, which completed its third year in office, “has never bothered to design a proper environmental policy.”

“I sure hope this means (the president) will now assume that commitment, and that this isn’t just another political rally. But we’ll have to wait for results, rather than just mere words.”

Greenpeace took an even harder stance in a statement issued after the rally, in which it described Kirchner’s speech as “ridiculous,” because “he did not even outline a timeframe” for implementing a plan to clean up the pollution caused by the pulp factories that have operated for years in Argentina, many of which will use outdated, heavily polluting technology.

The president’s speech “was at the very least insincere” and came “far from meeting expectations,” since it offered no concrete guidelines on environmental policy for the country and proposed no concrete solutions for the current and future pulp plants, said Greenpeace Argentina executive director Martín Prieto.

Greenpeace also questioned the government’s decision to take the dispute to The Hague, on the argument that the International Court of Justice should only be resorted to in “the last stage of the conflict,” because “there were mechanisms of discussion that were not duly explored.”

For his part, the president of the local residents association in the neighbourhood of La Boca, Alfredo Alberti, told IPS that he thought it was “excellent” that Kirchner and the provincial governments were assuming responsibility in a cause that is aimed at preventing future pollution.

But he stressed that there are much more serious existing problems that have not yet been addressed.

The Matanza Riachuelo river basin, which cuts across Buenos Aires, is the country’s most heavily polluted river, he pointed out. “What we’re talking about here are dying rivers,” said Alberti.

Argentina’s office of the auditor general and ombudsperson’s office have both warned that the Matanza River, which is known as the Riachuelo in the last eight km before it runs into the Rio de la Plata estuary, is seriously polluted.

“We invite Kirchner to boat down the river with his entire cabinet,” said Alberti. “After that nauseating journey, we would like him to also call together his entire cabinet to work” to bring about a change in that situation, he added.

In Alberti’s view, the pulp mill dispute has marked a turning-point in terms of the growth of environmental awareness in Argentina. “I really hope this gives a boost to efforts on all of these issues,” he said.

After reading out the document signed by the government officials, Kirchner said he was “willing to continue to help find a way to preserve the environment in unison” with Uruguay .But he also pointed to what he considered weakpoints in the Uruguayan government’s decision.

“Uruguay authorised the installation of the plants in Fray Bentos, on the Uruguay River, without having addressed our concern over the impact that the projects will have on the border river, the environment, and the people on both sides of the river,” he stated.

The residents of Gualeguaychú – which is located on the river of that same name, that flows into the Uruguay River – fear that the plants will cause air and water pollution.

Since late last year, and through the entire southern hemisphere summer, they have held protests and blocked traffic across bridges connecting the two countries, causing serious damages to the Uruguayan economy.

“We are not talking about affecting the sovereignty of any country,” said Kirchner.

“No one can claim sovereignty over the use of a resource that does not belong exclusively to them,” he said, invoking clauses of the Uruguay River treaty which stipulate that the other party must be consulted whenever a major project is carried out.

The president admitted that there are pulp factories polluting the Uruguay River on the Argentine side, as the Uruguayan government has complained. “We have to improve that technology,” he acknowledged. But, he argued, the plants are spread out and the entire combined output of all of the mills operating in Argentina amounts to only half of what the two factories in Uruguay will produce.

Kirchner also urged the countries of Latin America “to call on the industrialised world, with serenity, but with resolution,” to stop transferring “dirty investments” to poorer countries in exchange for promises of jobs.

“There is only one planet. The only option is to respect the environment everywhere. We Latin Americans who value life must take charge of the struggle to keep the central countries from parceling us out according to their interests, taking advantage of our deficiencies and evading their responsibilities,” he said.

“The North must listen to the South,” said Kirchner. “How can it be that developing countries voice our grievances and no one listens to us. Those who have the financial and technological resources cannot continue to flout their commitments. They must abandon their double standards.”