Centerpiece

Slow progress in cleanup of notorious river

Argentina

No living Argentine has seen the Matanza-Riachuelo in anything approaching a pristine state. The river, which in its lower reaches forms the southern border of Buenos Aires, has for generations stood as a monument to urban pollution, its ink-black waters relentlessly conveying chemicals, sewage, offal, trash and a cornucopia of disagreeable odors. In the process, the river also has become a symbol of broken government promises. For well over a century, Argentine authorities have announced cleanup initiatives, none of which has achieved significant and lasting results. Perhaps the starkest illustration of the gap between promise and performance was the ill-starred pledge in 1993 by María Julia Alsogaray, environment secretary for then-President Carlos Menem, to clean up the river within 1,000 days... [Log in to read more]

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