Construction of two large Patagonian dams planned by the administration of former Argentine President Cristina Kirchner and endorsed by her successor, current President Mauricio Macri, suffered a surprise blow this month when the country’s Supreme Court effectively suspended the project. In a Dec. 21 ruling, the court accepted the arguments of two green-advocacy organizations—the Association of Environmental Lawyers of Patagonia and Forests Bank—that the plan for dams on the Santa Cruz River has not received proper environmental review. It ordered work on the project halted until an environmental-impact study is carried out and put to a public hearing. Thus far, no substantial work has been done on the ground in connection with the US$4.7 billion project, which calls for two...
[ Log in to read more | Subscribe ]
To settle a six-year long border dispute with Costa Rica, recently reelected Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega has said his country will pay compensation for environmental damage caused by illegal dredging that the Nicaraguan Army carried out in Costa Rican wetlands in 2010. Ortega declared his intention to pay the damages during a Dec. 6 diplomatic ceremony in Managua in which Eduardo Trejos, Costa Rica’s new ambassador to Nicaragua, officially received his credentials. “Of course we will pay, but we first need to clarify the figure they are requesting,” Ortega said at the event. “Of course, Nicaragua is going to abide by the Court’s ruling.” The dredging was discovered during an aerial survey by the Costa Rican government in 2010, which found canals had been...
[ Log in to read more | Subscribe ]
For years, Argentine government officials and environmental groups fought unsuccessfully to block construction of a massive pulp mill in Uruguay on the banks of the Uruguay River. In doing so, they argued that the plant would become a major source of contamination of the river, which forms part of the Argentine-Uruguayan border. Now backers of the plant, which has operated since Nov. 2007, are pointing to a recently issued water monitoring report to argue that the more important threat is pollution from the Argentine side. In particular, they point to heavy-metal, agrochemical and residential-waste pollution from Argentina’s Gualeguaychú River, which empties into the Uruguay. The 400-page report, based on monitoring done during 2011-15 by the binational Uruguay River Administrative Commission (CARU...
[ Log in to read more | Subscribe ]
