Integrated Urban Water Management
Case Study
Buenos Aires
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This work was made possible by the financial
contribution of the Water Partnership Program (WPP)
http://water.worldbank.org/water/wpp.
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the support of the World Bank’s Water and Sanitation
Program.
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Cover: Buenos Aires, ARG.
Source: AySA.
Buenos Aires has experienced fundamental institutional shifts over the last two
decades
Water supply and sanitation service in Buenos Aires shifted from public provision to
a private concession in 1992, and then back to a public model in 2006. Signed in
1992, the Buenos Aires concession was a unique and controversial example of water
privatization due to its scale and rapid implementation. The concession was granted
to Aguas Argentina, a consortium led by a French firm, and was consistent with the
large-scale privatization agenda of Argentina in the 1990s. Starting in 2001, Argentina
experienced a financial crisis that contributed to the unraveling of the concession. In
2006 the Argentinian government rescinded the concession contract and established
Agua y Saneamientos Argentinos S.A. (AySA).
Mouth of the Rio de La Plata river meeting the Atlantic Ocean.
Source: NASA.
The Buenos Aires metropolitan area
has one regional water company
thereby reducing inter-jurisdictional
complications
AySA provides water and wastewater
services to the capital district of
Buenos Aires and the surrounding 17
administrative districts. With a service
area of 1,800 km2 containing close to
11 million people, AySA is one of the
world’s largest water companies. The
national government provides generous
financial transfers to AySA which
has allowed it to expand water and
wastewater services while maintaining
relatively low tariffs.
Buenos Aires has ample water
resources and AySA is expanding water
service coverage
The large Rio de la Plata is the source
for Buenos Aires’ drinking water. AySA
extracts water from the Rio de la
Plata and then treats and distributes
the water to its customers. Water
supply service is generally good, with
continuous service that meets drinking
water standards. AySA currently
provides water to approximately 9
million people or 82% of its service
population but has ambitious plans
to expand service coverage to 100%
by 2015. The extension of service
4
Integrated Urban Water Management | Case Study | Buenos Aires
coverage is targeted primarily at low
income customers. The abundant water
services, combined with low tariffs,
has resulted in one of the highest percapita water consumption rates in Latin
America, estimated at around 400 liters
daily per person.
Stormwater drainage is a major
challenge for Buenos Aires
The major stormwater infrastructure
of Buenos Aires was constructed
during the 1930s and 1940s, and is
currently undergoing a major overhaul
to deal with mounting economic
losses from flooding. The rapid and
generally uncontrolled urbanization of
Buenos Aires has resulted in increased
impermeability generating higher
stormwater flows. The population
density of Buenos Aires is one of the
highest in the world, with an average
of 150 habitants/ha with some
areas approaching 400 habitants/
ha. Aggravating the drainage situation
are fluctuating water levels due to
tides in the Rio de la Plata and high
groundwater levels.
The worsening situation of flooding
and subsequent damage to human life
and the economy of the City provided
the motivation to substantially increase
investments on flood infrastructure.
The City of Buenos Aires has developed
their Urban Hydraulic Master Plan
which lays out a prioritized investment
plan1. The goal of the Master Plan is to
upgrade the city’s stormwater drainage
network to provide protection against
10-year rainfall events. These efforts
will reduce the probability of flooding to
once every 10 years.
1 See the following website for information on
Buenos Aires Hydraulic Master Plan: http://
www.planhidraulico.buenosaires.gob.ar/
2 See the following website for the AySA’s Plan
Director: http://www.aysa.com.ar/index.
php?id_seccion=7
Water pollution, particularly in the
Matanza Riachuelo Basin is the major
issue in the Buenos Aires metropolitan
region
The Matanza Riachuelo is the major
river draining the Buenos Aires
Metropolitan region. The river has
historically been one of the most
contaminated rivers in the world due
to the large concentration of industries,
particularly those based on the cattle
processing such as slaughterhouses
and tanneries, as well as metal-based
industries. Approximately five million
people live in the basin and almost
none of the municipal and industrial
wastewater was treated in the past. In
its lower reaches, there is essentially
no dissolved oxygen and the river is
devoid of aquatic life. The historically
deplorable environmental conditions
have caused the city to turn its back
to the river, with slums naturally filling
the space along its banks. In the early
1990s, the government of Argentina
promised to clean up the river in 1,000
days, but was unable to initiate a largescale program.
1. Providing Public Information
2. Controlling Industrial Pollution
Control
3. Closing Unsanitary Solid Waste
Dumps
4. Constructing Water Supply,
Drainage, and Sewerage Networks
5. Improving the River Banks
6. Attending to the Environmental
Public Health Crisis
7. Enforcing and Monitoring the
Implementation of the Court Ruling
In order to implement the last
component of the Ruling, the Court
devised a three prong strategy: i) the
Auditor General of Argentina take
financial and budgetary control over
the program; ii) the Citizens Advisory
Group (Cuerpo Colegiado de Control
de la Gestion del Plan) oversees the
implementation of the program
composed primarily of the NGOs
which originally brought the lawsuit;
and iii) designation of a federal judge
to oversee the program and whose
decisions are final and cannot be
appealed.
The judicial system is the main driver
for the current Matanza Riachuelo
Program
AySA and the Government of Argentina
have responded to the Court ruling
with a comprehensive and ambitious
wastewater investment program
In 2008 the Supreme Court of
Argentina, in response to a citizen’s
lawsuit, ruled that the Government of
Argentina, the City of Buenos Aires,
and the Province of Buenos Aires were
equally negligent and responsible for
not controlling the degradation of the
Matanza Riachuelo. In a historic ruling,
known as the Mendoza Ruling, the
Court ordered an accelerated action
program for the clean-up of the river.
The Court also decreed that the newly
established river basin organization:
Autoridad del la Cuenca de Matanza
Riachuelo (ACUMAR), coordinate the
implementation of the program, which
consists of seven different components:
The targets for the wastewater master
plan, which of course are subject to
adjustments, are summarized in the
table below2. Taking advantage of the
large dilution capacity of the Rio de La
Plata river, the general strategy is to
collect wastewater in large wastewater
interceptors and convey the wastewater
to two large pre-treatment plants
(Berazategui-33 m3/s and Dock Sud-25
m3/s, peak capacity) which provide
screening for trash removal and
skimming of floatable materials such
as oil and grease, before discharging
through long outfalls (Berazategui7.5 kms and Dock Sud-11 kms) with
diffusers to dilute the wastewater.
Integrated Urban Water Management | Case Study | Buenos Aires
Table: Summary of AySA’s Wastewater Master Plan
Year
Population in the service area
Network length (Km)
2010
2010-2020
2020
5.901.000
3.440.100
9.341.100
10.100
10.400
20.500
Investment
Modeling studies indicate that the
partially treated wastewater will have
limited impact on the water quality in
the Rio de la Plata. In addition, AySA
is constructing a number of smaller
secondary wastewater treatment plants
in distant urban areas from the Rio
de la Plata to avoid the high costs of
constructing long interceptors.
The 2020 water quality objective
for the Rio Matanza Riachuelo is to
achieve Class IV standards suitable
for passive non-contact recreation
with dissolved oxygen concentrations
above 2 mg/l at least 90% of the time.
In order to ensure that the dissolved
oxygen standards are met, AySA is also
constructing a series of “sidestream
elevated pool aeration” (SEPA) stations
alongside the river. The SEPA stations
essentially elevate a portion of water
from the river, which then flows down a
$10 Billion (App. US$2.5 Billion in 2010)
cascade thereby aerating the water and
helping to meet the dissolved oxygen
standard.
ACUMAR has responded to the court
ruling with a dynamic comprehensive
industrial pollution program
Industrial pollution constitutes about
half of the total organic pollution in the
Matanza Riachuelo basin and must be
eliminated if the Class IV water quality
standards are to be achieved. Starting
in 2010, ACUMAR has aggressively
pursued an industrial pollution
program with a special emphasis
on the most polluting industries,
particularly slaughterhouses, tanneries,
and electroplating enterprises. There
are approximately 10,715 industries
in the basin, of which ACUMAR has
surveyed 85%--around 9,500 over a
period of two years. As of September
Wastewater Treatment Plant in Buenos Aires Metropolitan areas.
Source: AySA.
2011, 1,507 industries have been
declared “pollution sources” (agentes
contaminantes) and 1,263 (84%) have
presented their pollution control plans
(plan de reconversion industrial).
ACUMAR has approved 1,005 of the
plans and 309 industries are either
implementing or have completed
their plans. ACUMAR is also offering
financial and technical assistance
to the small and medium sized
enterprises (SMEs) to help them meet
their pollution control obligations. The
speed, scale, and comprehensiveness
of ACUMAR’s industrial pollution
control program are unprecedented in
Latin America.
ACUMAR has also moved rapidly on
environmental restoration of the
Matanza Riachuelo river banks
The water quality in the Matanza
Riachuelo will improve significantly
after the municipal wastewater
investments are completed and the
industrial pollution control program is
fully implemented. In the meantime,
ACUMAR has implemented a largescale river front clean-up and river
surface improvement program. Over
70% of the 318 km’s of riverbanks have
been cleaned and improved, mainly by
employing low-income workers through
local cooperatives under the “Argentina
Works” program. Approximately 114
tons of solids have been removed from
the river surface, as well as 61 sunken
ships and over 70 cars. In addition,
ACUMAR has relocated approximately
2,777 low-income households living
along in precarious situations along
the river and provided many of them
with new housing units. Even though
the water quality has not significantly
improved yet, there has been a dramatic
environmental shift along the river,
which is greatly appreciated by local
residents and marks the first step in
a long-term process to restore the
Matanza Riachuelo.
5
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Integrated Urban Water Management | Case Study | Buenos Aires
Environmental Restoration along the Matanza Riachuelo.
World Bank is providing two large loans
for the Buenos Aires Water Program
Bank support for the program is
channeled primarily through the
following two projects:
Matanza Riachuelo Basin Sustainable
Development Adaptable Lending
Program (Loan amount of
US$718,032,000 with estimated closing
in 2016): The project development
objectives include (i) improving
sewerage services in the Matanza
Riachuelo basin and other parts of the
Province and City of Buenos Aires by
expanding conveyance and treatment
capacity; (ii) supporting a reduction of
industrial discharges to the Matanza
Riachuelo river, through the provision
of industrial conversion grants to
small and medium enterprises; (iii)
promoting improved decision-making
for environmentally-sustainable
land use and drainage planning, and
piloting urban drainage and land use
investments; and (iv) strengthening
ACUMAR’s institutional framework for
ongoing and sustainable clean-up of the
Matanza Riachuelo basin.
Source ACUMAR.
Urban Flood Prevention and Drainage
Project (Loan amount of US$130 million
closed in late 2012). The project
increases the City of Buenos Aires
resilience to flooding through protection
of its critical infrastructure and the
introduction of a risk management
approach to the government investment
program. The project focuses on the
issue of risk identification and reduction
through prevention, mitigation,
education and training. The primary
infrastructure investment supported
by the project is the Maldonado
stormwater tunnel.
This case study was prepared by Greg Browder, Lead Water and Sanitation Specialist; with
support from Juan Pedro Cano, Junior Professional Associate; and Michael Murphy, Knowledge
Management Coordinator. Significant technical contributions and background material were
provided by Renan Poveda, Senior Environmental Specialist.
This document was made possible through financing from the Water Partnership Program, a
partnership for improved water resources management and water service delivery.
This text is part of a set of case studies carried out by the World Bank and part of the
Integrated Urban Water Management Initiative for Latin America and the Caribbean. For
further information, click http://www.worldbank.org/laciuwm.
Please visit:
www.worldbank.org/laciuwm