1. Case title
Rights-Based Approach: FARN1 networking for a sustainable and democratic MatanzaRiachuelo Basin
2. Country: Argentina
Partner Organizations: Centro de Estudios Legales y Sociales2, Asociación Vecinos de La
Boca3, Greenpeace Argentina4, Asociación Ciudadana por los Derechos Humanos5 and
the Ombudsman of the Nation6.
3. Case summary and key messages (200 words)
FARN has been actively working towards the cleaning-up and environmental restoration
of the Matanza-Riachuelo Basin. In response to the landmark National Supreme Court
(NSC) decision on the “Mendoza7” class action case, our organization has focused on
increasing public participation, access to public information and access to justice.
FARN has been indicated responsible for the civic control of the clean-up plan for the
basin -together with other four organizations8- within the framework of a Chartered
Body coordinated by the Ombudsman of the Nation.
The Matanza-Riachuelo Basin, the most polluted basin in Argentina and one of the thirty
most degraded ones in the world, has become a sad symbol of pollution and neglect in
the country. FARN has been working to achieve its restoration and cleaning-up with the
goal to contribute to long term environmental public policies, responsible productive
initiatives and greater citizen participation aimed towards a new paradigm of
sustainable development. At the same time, from the Riachuelo case, FARN seeks to
1
http://www.farn.org.ar/
http://www.cels.org.ar/
3 http://www.avelaboca.org.ar/
4 http://www.greenpeace.org/argentina/es/
5 http://www.acdh.org.ar/acdhweb/
6 http://www.dpn.gob.ar/
7 http://www.farn.org.ar/participacion/riachuelo/documentos/fallo_riachuelo_english.pdf
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promote pollution prevention and remediation of other watersheds in the country and
the region coordinating with other civil society organizations.
4. Background, geographical /socio-economic context and problems addressed (300
words)
The Matanza-Riachuelo Basin is a 64-kilometers stream that defines the southern
boundary of Buenos Aires federal district and flows into the De la Plata River. According
to the 2010 National Census, there are over 6 million inhabitants living in the basin
(around 15% of the country´s total population).
Among the main sources of pollution are sewage and industrial waste, which are
disposed in large amounts without appropriate treatment. The environmental problems
impact the health and lives of thousands of inhabitants, especially the most vulnerable
social groups, who often lack of basic services such as drinking water, sewage, plumbing,
health services and decent housing. However, there are also areas of high ecological
value that deserve to be protected and expanded.
The basin is a territory of interactive parts, where the natural environment,
infrastructure, industry and inhabitants must be considered as an integrated system.
Unfortunately, inadequate understanding of these dynamics has led to decades of
political failure, which has become a sad symbol of pollution and neglect in the country.
5. Key activities/interventions done by partners (300 words)
In 2002 a group of neighbours of La Boca, located in Buenos Aires downtown went to
the Ombudsman of the Nation headquarters and requested its intervention onto the
serious pollution of the basin. From there on, an interdisciplinary work involving
neighbours, civil society organizations, educational institutions and authorities began.
The result was two reports published under the title "Matanza-Riachuelo, a basin in
crisis9". These reports collected background on the matter, jointly addressing the
diverse issues involved and making recommendations to responsible authorities for
concrete action.
9
http://www.dpn.gob.ar/informes/riachuelo.pdf
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In July of 2004, Beatriz Mendoza -a public health worker- and other residents sued the
national, provincial and municipal governments and 44 corporations before the National
Supreme Court. On June 20, 2006, the NSC ordered the defendants to submit a clean-up
plan for the river basin, as well as requesting reports from the businesses detailing the
measures they would take in order to halt and then reverse pollution in the area.
Following a busy 2007 with several public hearings to receive feedback from different
and relevant actors, on July 8, 2008 the National Supreme Court handed down the
landmark decision on the case “Mendoza Beatriz Silvia and Others V/ National
Government and Others in regards to Damages”. The decision determined the liability
that corresponded to the three governmental levels in terms of the restoration from
and future prevention of environmental damage in the river basin.
The lawsuit led to the establishment of a new river basin authority (ACUMAR) and put in
place clean-up, restoration and regional environmental health plans. Also, the NSC
ordered the closure of all illegal dumps, redevelopment of landfills and clean-up of the
riverbanks; improvement of the drinking water, sewage treatment and stormwater
discharge systems in the river basin; supervision, by the federal Auditor General, of the
budget allocation for implementation of the restoration plan; and ongoing judicial
oversight of the implementation of the plan, with regular public hearings before the
Highest Tribunal and a federal court judge empowered to resolve any disputes related
to the Court's decision. It must be pointed out that any violations of the timelines
established by the Supreme Court would result in daily fines against responsible
politicians.
Moreover, in an innovative and positive step, the Supreme Court instructed the
Ombudsman of the Nation and the NGOs which participated in the case as third parties
(with FARN among them) to form a Chartered Body in order to exercise control over the
clean-up plan. This boosted public participation and citizen control in a matter of great
social concern.
Recognizing the vital importance of free access to information, FARN and GarageLab10
(professional web designers), with the support of other organizations from the
Chartered Body, designed and launched a website called “Qué pasa Riachuelo?11”
(Riachuelo: what´s up?). This website is an online monitoring platform that offers
10
11
http://garagelab.tumblr.com/
www.quepasariachuelo.org.ar
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mapping and geo-referencing environmental information regarding four areas of
interest: industries with the respective legal and environmental risk rates; open-air
dumps (that includes current state, classification and affected surface); population
settlements and shanty towns; and territorial alerts. All the information available at the
online platform comes from public sources and the data is incorporated as an open
format, which means that information on the website can be freely accessed and reused
by any interested user.
FARN believes that this sort of tool will lead to increased public participation and
motivate a community’s sense of ownership over a shared value such as the
environment, a resource that cannot be left to the State alone, but requires the active
participation of all citizens.
6. Biodiversity impacts – socioeconomic impacts – policy impacts (300 words)
ACUMAR: one of the most important results of the litigation process was the creation of
an inter-jurisdictional river basin committee which represents a remarkable step
towards acknowledging that the environment requires more inter-jurisdictional
cooperation. The most outstanding achievement of ACUMAR so far has been to start the
process of cleaning up open dumps. They successfully removed 120,000 tons of garbage
and implemented a waste collection system via water, for settlements and shantytowns
located on the coast of the river, which previously lacked this collection service. Also the
towpath has been recovered and reopened. In the last year and a half, ACUMAR has
consolidated a control/inspection process for industries as ordered by the Supreme
Court.
Rights awareness: the Mendoza case has raised awareness and legal mobilization
around the right to health, which also includes the right to a healthy environment. The
Mendoza case has encouraged advocacy on similar cases, inspiring other organizations
or groups of neighbours from similarly polluted rivers to pursue political response
through litigation.
Public policy: the landmark decision handed down by the National Supreme Court on
the Mendoza case led to the development of a public policy for the Matanza-Riachuelo
basin, when before it was all apathy and neglect. The decision also imposed on the State
the unprecedented obligation to carry out an accountability process which core is,
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precisely, to inform about everything related to progress in the clean-up plan and the
general situation of the basin, as well as the duty to adopt a public information system
that provides updated and detailed data, accessible for the general public in a concrete
and clear manner.
Changes in allocating funds: the National Congress has now approved a separate
budget for cleaning the basin. Furthermore, the intervention of the National Auditor
General secured more financial transparency.
Increased control: since the NSC decision the government increased the number of
environmental inspectors in the region from 3 to 70, and created 90 sampling points for
monitoring water and 4 of air and soil quality. Three new water treatment plants have
been built, providing clean water to 1 million of people; 11 sewage-treatment plants
have been expanded; 186 garbage dumps have been closed; and 177 polluting industrial
facilities have been reconverted12.
Media attention and accessible public information: many civil society organizations
have taken advantage of the media in order to inform the public about the (lack of)
compliance with the judgment. For example, FARN and the monitoring committee
published a list of industries that had been inspected and identified as “contaminating
agents,” information that is made available to the public and governing bodies.
Laguna de Rocha Natural Reserve. In 2012, the Legislature of the Province of Buenos
Aires passed Law Nº 14.488 which established the referred protected area. The Lagoon,
the most important wetland of the basin, acts as a natural filtration system that cleans
the water before it empties into the Matanza-Riachuelo basin.
7. Success factors (max 300 words)
The Mendoza case was possible because Argentina's Constitution recognizes the right to
a healthy environment and the citizens' power to defend their rights through the judicial
system (articles 41 and 4313). This recognition leads to stronger environmental laws,
improved implementation and enforcement, enhanced public participation, stronger
12
13
Source: ACUMAR.
http://infoleg.mecon.gov.ar/infolegInternet/anexos/0-4999/804/norma.htm
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safeguards for vulnerable sector of society, improved accountability and environmental
performance.
The intervention of the Supreme Court, deciding to make a statement on the case has
meant a “before and after” for Riachuelo. The Mendoza ruling put an end to the inertia
to which such an important portion of the metropolitan area was subjected to and
where never before in 200 years, policies and plans of any kind have been put in place in
order to reverse or improve its degrading situation.
The creation of an inter-jurisdictional river basin committee was fundamental for the
execution of the diverse initial activities and interventions on a complex, shared basin in
which cooperation is the key.
8. Bottlenecks (gridlock) and if/how they were overcome (max 300 words)
ACUMAR´s institutional weakness: in the process of implementing the judgment,
ACUMAR has not showed to have the sufficient inter-jurisdictional power necessary to
enforce the Court’s decision. The limited scope of authority is closely linked to the lack
of resources. While giving ACUMAR the power to impose taxes, such as polluter pay tax,
would be a way of giving independence to the authority, many parties are strongly
opposed to such a proposal. Another problem is the institutional instability within
ACUMAR. There have been constant changes of officials and since it was created the
structure has been modified four times.
Allegations of corruption: on August 26, 2012, a journalist named Horacio Verbitsky
published an article entitled “Mists of the Riachuelo14” where he exposed the corruption
of Judge Armello, the judge responsible for enforcing the NSC´s sentence. The article
claimed that relatives of the judge created companies that were awarded contracts for
clean-up works without going through bidding channels, with the excuse that the works
needed to be completed urgently. In response to these allegations, NSC convened a
public meeting to discuss the following issues: a) assess the degree of compliance with
the Mendoza decision and determine the progress and difficulties related to the
Integrated Cleanup Plan; b) receive testimony from representatives in regards to the
14
http://www.pagina12.com.ar/diario/elpais/1-201868-2012-08-26.html
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contracts mentioned in Verbitsky’s article; and, c) understand the results of the
investigation by the NGA (National General Audit) involving Federal Judge Quilmes.
After reviewing the basic information included in the NGA audit and examining the
testimony from the public hearings, the National Supreme Court adopted two important
decisions for the development of the Mendoza case: removing Judge Armella from the
case and restructuring the implementation of the decision (prioritizing issues that
require urgent resolution and increasing transparency and access to information).
9. Do’s and don’ts for replication & up-scaling (max. 300 words)
Do´s:
a) Establishing a right to healthy environment (either through Constitution, statute, or
judicial decision), making it the responsibility of the State to protect citizens from
undue environmental harm;
b) Creating several enforcement/monitoring bodies to ensure accountability to public
and each other (NGOs, Courts, inter-jurisdictional entity like ACUMAR, NGA auditing
use of funds);
c) Give enforcement strength to monitoring bodies (proper funding, inter-jurisdictional
powers both vertically between judiciary/executive/legislature and horizontally
between national/provincial/municipal governments);
d) Launching a social monitoring platform like www.quepasariachuelo.org.ar to
encourage public participation, helping to ensure visibility and accountability of
parties responsible for the Clean-Up Plan;
e) Taking advantage of media/internet/public participation throughout the litigation
process and more importantly, afterwards as an external check on compliance.
Don’ts:
a) Include unnecessary factors for measuring objectives. It is not necessary to include
overly qualitative factors which do not contribute to monitoring progress and
compliance of the clean-up process;
b) Fragment monitoring/enforcement entities: for a complexly integrated system like
the Matanza-Riachuelo basin, there should be a governing body that oversees all
efforts at improvement as a whole (waste management, public health, water
sanitation, pollution prevention, infrastructure, etc.) because all these various issues
are entwine;
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c) Disregard the unrepresented/poorer communities: make efforts to seek out input
and inform people of their rights and the situation (especially important for
educating local inhabitants on health issues associated with river pollution and
symptoms to watch out for).
10. Recommendations for policy makers
Relocating populations at risk: there are no institutional mechanisms to integrate local
input on the method and destination of relocation. Due to unreliable and insufficient
data, it is not possible to accurately analyze the progress of housing efforts or to ensure
that the right to housing is being adequately respected.
Integrating health and environmental management: the Ministry of Health conducted
a survey of environmental risk factors which confirmed that 96% of the inhabitants of
the territory of the Basin are exposed to at least one environmental threat. There must
be more proactive political efforts to establish preventive measures. In particular, the
State must ensure access to safe water for populations at risk.
Improving waste management and infrastructure: ACUMAR needs to implement a
comprehensive waste management strategy that focuses on the reduction, recycling
and reuse of waste. It is also important to develop sewer infrastructure and create an
updated map of the ductwork storm drains.
Reforming system of measuring objectives: currently, 50% of the indicators developed
by ACUMAR correspond to the body's own management, but do not report on results of
the activity. The monitoring system must be composed entirely of indicators that show
progress in meeting the outcomes.
Encouraging vertical cooperation: according to FARN, the National Government
dominates the management of the ACUMAR. It is necessary involve local municipalities,
which have only played a consultative role, in overseeing ACUMAR’s activities to clean
up the basin.
Involving the private sector: although the private sector is part of the problem, it does
not seem to see itself as part of the solution and remains inactive, awaiting a direct
judgment from the Court.
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