It’s Friday again!

And if you’re reading this it’s because you survived December 6th, a day that will be remembered as one of the most eventful days in recent history.

Today was expected to be a day to remember, as the much-dreaded December 7th (also referred to as “7D”) was supposed to arrive.

Remember? 7D! The day that the National Government had been advertising for months as the day in which Grupo Clarín‘s hegemonic dominance of terror was going to come to an end, prompting humanity to leave its current state of slumber and transition to a higher plane of consciousness that brings forth a new age of global understanding.

And yet, today feels totally anticlimactic. Because it was yesterday that the unexpected (and probably jealous) “6D” ended up stealing all the attention.

It’s hard to sum up in a few words the humongous amount of shit that happened yesterday. The feeling of anxiety, the uncertainty, the despair and the hilarious Twitter jokes that helped us engage in collective catharsis.

Last night, hundreds of newspaper editors around the country were scratching their heads thinking of a single headline that could easily convey the wave of catastrophes that befell upon us without splashing the front cover with the word CHAOS.

Let’s just say that if yesterday had been a TV show, it would have been 24. And I’m not sure even Jack Bauer could have handled the pressure.

Suggested soundtrack for the following read: this. And don’t forget to like the Weekly News Roundup on Facebook so you can keep up with future updates.

The following takes place between 8 AM and midnight, on December 6th 2012:

• 

  President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner holding a copy of Clarín. And she's holding it weird. What's up with her left arm? It looks like one of those action figure arms that bend in a weird way. You know which ones I mean? It's like they try really hard to make them look human but dude, no. (Photo/Wikipedia)

  [8:00 AM] It’s raining in Buenos Aires and yet the heat is suffocating. The humidity is through the roof and millions of women complain about having a bad hair day. I know this seems like the end of the world but trust me, it gets worse. A lot worse.

• [9:11 AM] I should have suspected it was going to be a horrible day when on my way to a meeting I stepped on a banana peel and crash landed on the sidewalk like some loser. Yes, bad shit happens to me too but at least I exorcise my demons via Twitter. I know this is personal and unrelated but sorry, I just had to talk about it. And to whoever left that banana peel there on purpose: fuck you.

• [09:45 AM] The action begins. A container in Puerto Madero filled with drums of mercury catches fire. Local networks announce we’re all going to die very quickly.

• [10:32 AM] No, wait! Turns out it’s not mercury! Phew! No, it’s actually a chemical compound used in pesticides/insecticides that explodes when making contact with water. Rain water possibly leaked into the container, starting the fire upon contact. Firemen arrive and try to put the fire out with more water. Container explodes (obviously). Dense toxic cloud begins to hover above Buenos Aires. Authorities order the evacuation of offices and schools in Puerto Madero, San Telmo, Retiro and the downtown area. A putrid smell invades the city. Local networks announce we’re still going to die, only a slow and painful death.

• [10:53 AM] As hundreds of terrified parents double park their cars in front of their children’s schools in the downtown area causing traffic chaos and people run for their lives under the rain to escape the stench, former Deputy Mayor of Buenos Aires and current national lawmaker Gabriela Michetti casually tweets that she’s “enjoying the wonderful smell of the jasmines sitting atop her desk”. She becomes the most hated person on Twitter.

• [11:15 AM] The local authorities recommend the population to stay home, close doors and windows and  turn the AC off. Thousands begin to contemplate suicide. Not because of the poisonous cloud, but because of the suffocating heat inside their homes. All windows locked and the AC off? In this humidity?! Goodbye, cruel world.

• [11:20 AM] It is still raining. All Subte stations in the area close and the service is interrupted. The Retiro station is shut down before the last train arrives to the platform. Passengers get off the train and realize they are trapped inside, breathing the contaminated air. Oops!

• [11:25 AM] All trains in the Mitre line suspend their services to Retiro. People trying to escape the area are royally fucked.

• [11:27 AM] You know how you keep talking about taking a cruise someday and enjoying a non-eventful holiday? Well if you ever do, make sure your cruise has not been docked next to a fucking toxic cloud. It was like “Speed 2“, only less exciting and with better acting. It’s OK though, they sent the cruise to high seas for precaution and the only downside was that the tourists could not visit Palermo Soho and buy overpriced crap they would have never used anyway.

• [11:30 AM] Website of local tabloid Cronica runs this headline, Twitter explodes.

• [11:34 AM] Several people begin to report dizziness, and a burning sensation in throat and lungs. If they end up turning into zombies I’m gonna be sooooo pissed.

• [11:35 AM] Drama queens appear.

• [11:45 AM] Local authorities begin to suggest that the toxic spill may not be deadly after all, just “moderately hazardous.” Security Secretary Sergio Berni offers press conference from Puerto Madero in hazmat suit looking like a badass version of Jack Bauer, he becomes the most loved/mocked person in the media.

• [12:00 PM] Thousands of evacuees are disappointed after learning that the deadly cloud is actually not deadly and they have to return to work.

• [12:32 PM] The rain stops.

• [1:00 PM] Nothing happens, which is kinda of a bad omen.

• [2:00 PM] Sky turns black. It starts raining again, but this time it’s a torrential rain. People look outside their windows and find out they are unable to see the other side of the street.

• [3:00 PM] It is still raining like crazy. People begin to exchange gazes of confusion and legitimate concern. This rain is not normal. “Maybe it’s some kind of toxic rain, a result of the toxic cloud,” says a Twitter user clearly well versed in meteorology and with a degree from the University of Just Pulled That Out of my Ass.

• [4:00 PM] Everyone’s greatest fears become a reality when a flash flood hits many areas of the city, specially Palermo’s ugly sister (Belgrano).

• [4:15 PM] Cronica decides to go with another groundbreaking headline: “From Chernobyl to Venice“. Twitter explodes again.

• [4:30 PM] Because things are apparently kinda dull today, coach drivers decide to go on strike and block the exit of the Retiro bus station, trapping inside the facilities all passengers who were planning on going away for the weekend.

• [5:00 PM] As the heavy storm continues to flood the city, news break of a shootout at the DOT shopping mall. Initial reports suggest a group of 50 savages have entered the mall and begun ransacking stores and cannibalizing people or something. Seems legit.

• [5:10 PM] All subway lines interrupted due to severe flooding. Severe as in “completely under water”. More traffic chaos ensues.

• [5:15 PM] Blackouts are registered throughout the City as a result of the intense storm. Thousands complain about not being able to check their Twitter feed for snark.

• [5:23 PM] Buenos Aires finally collapses. The Arroyo Vega overflows and the busy commercial corner of Blanco Encalada and Cabildo Av. now looks like a disaster scene from The Bible, with hundreds of people trapped in over a meter of water. God help us all.

• [6:10 PM] A tornado?!  Are you fucking kidding me?! What’s next, Godzilla?!

• [6:30 PM] The rain stops, but it’s too late. Entire neighborhoods in the Greater Buenos Aires area and the City, including Palermo and Belgrano (the ones you care about) are flooded.

• [6:37 PM] Turns out the angry mob at the DOT was just protesting that due to the building’s poorly designed drain system, their settlement (Villa Mitre) was flooded, so they decided to take it out with the stores. There were no shots fired, no people eaten. Happy ending, kind of.

• [6:40 PM] People finally embrace the fact that they are bound to live in a third world version of Atlantis forever and start kayaking through the flooded streets of Belgrano, laughing maniacally.

•  [6:41 PM] Rumors begin to surface suggesting that a federal court has decided to extend the injunction on the Media Law requested by Clarín, a move that would effectively ruin the National Government’s celebrations prepared for December 7th (when the injunction was set to expire). In the newsroom where I work, I begin banging my head incessantly on my keyboard. This is the longest day of my (journalistic) life.

• [6:49 PM] Worst fears confirmed: the injunction has been extended. Millions of anti-Kirchnerites celebrate throughout the country while the Government just stands there, jaw-dropped in disbelief. The 7D mythology has been exterminated only a few hours before the celebrations began. In the newsroom, I try to cut my veins with one of those plastic spoons but my colleagues restrain me and talk me out of it by bringing Jesus into the conversation.

• [7:11 PM] The entire cabinet convenes with the President in an emergency meeting at the Olivos presidential residence.

• [7:30 PM] Godzilla finally shows up.

• [7:57 PM] People begin to freak out again as the Buenos Aires sky
  

  I have a feeling that if Jack Bauer lived in Buenos Aires he would have perished by around noon. (Photo/Wikipedia)

  acquires this sort of reddish hue that either heralds the end of times or means that a nuclear bomb just went off. Whatever the case may be, I’m ready. Bring it.

• [8:24 PM] In social networks, the expression “6D” starts to become “a thing”. I hate humanity.

• [9:30 PM] Tony Bennet is singing at the Gran Rex and I’m missing it because I have tons of work to do thanks to this interminable day.

• [10:30 PM] Cristina leaves for Brazil to attend a Mercosur summit licking her wounds and in a very, very bad mood. Like me, basically.

•  [11:59 PM] The coach drivers’ strike ends one minute before midnight, all passengers are freed. At the same time, the storm recedes, the water levels decrease, the cleaning staff at the DOT mall mumbles in discontent, Cristina is flying to Brazil with her blood pressure probably through the roof and the chairmen of the Grupo Clarín sacrifice a few babies to thank Baphomet for the blessings received. All in all a  pretty productive day.

As part of our on-going villa series, we revisit Anthony Bale’s 2008 article on paco, a by-product of cocaine that is wreaking havoc on the lives of many villa inhabitants.

“My son, Jeremia, was in another world. He had to sleep outside like a dog because he couldn’t stay in the house or he would rob everything from us,” says María Rosa Gonzalez, founder of Madres Contra Paco, (Mothers Against Paco).

Gonzalez, a mother of four, lives in La Cuidad Oculta, one of the most deprived and dangerous areas of Buenos Aires. She has two sons, one is an ex-addict and the other is currently still addicted to ‘paco’, the drug which has been described as being deadlier and more addictive than crack.

What is it?

Although it comes from cocaine, paco is merely a by-product of the drug. It is made up of the chemical residue of coca leaves used to make cocaine which has been produced to be trafficked to the US and Europe. Meanwhile the poorest communities of Argentina are left with what has been considered as the ‘rubbish’ of the drug.

It is so low grade and toxic that it’s basically just a mixture of chemicals with no purity to it whatsoever. It is often mixed with such substances as sulphuric acid, kerosene, rat poison and even crushed glass.

It is considered a drug for the poor as it only costs two or three pesos for a hit; but addiction soon becomes an expensive habit. It gives an intense high that lasts a matter of seconds, and it is this, combined with the highly toxic chemicals, which makes it so addictive. Users constantly need another fix, with people taking up to 100 hits a day. Many addicts will go on binges spanning over three days without sleep, constantly searching for more.

Their lives become consumed by the drug, so much so that they are often described as being ‘the living dead’ by doctors and those who interact with them.

Medical impact

Dr Eduardo Kallina, a leading medical expert on the effects of drug addiction in South America, described how a person changes: “The absence of the drug is very bad because the sensation is so quick and intense. You become depressed. It completely transforms your personality to be more aggressive.”

Portraying the mannerisms of an addict, he says: “It attacks the front part of your brain which controls your personality, your sense of right and wrong, your conscience, your aggression… addicts regress as if they were animals, like apes or Neanderthals.”

“I was 18 when I first tried it,” says Jeremia, Gonzalez’ 22-year-old son. “It’s a quick, intense high, but it leaves you almost immediately. It leaves you feeling very low, and desperate, wanting more and nothing else matters… You don’t have any fear, and you don’t care about anything else.”

While users of other drugs such as ecstasy and cocaine may experience long-term effects after several years of using, paco causes problems almost immediately. Dr Kalina explains: “After six months it completely destroys you. It’s as if someone was smoking 80 cigarettes a day for 20 years, however these side effects are evident within a matter of months. You lose all sense of humanity.”

As users are constantly searching for their next fix, they don’t eat or drink.

Gonzalez tells how her son originally weighed around 75kg, a weight that was reduced to just 31kg by the time he was admitted for treatment.

Social impact

Many family members suffer as they watch their loved ones quickly deteriorate before their very eyes. A lot of addicts are teenagers, with reports of children as young as nine hooked on the drug. There have been several stories of addicts selling everything and anything they own to feed the habit and this includes stealing from their families, something Gonzalez had to endure with Jeremia.

“I couldn’t stand seeing him like this anymore. I had to do something. There’s something about a mother’s love for her children, when you see them in danger something takes over you.”

So she decided, along with other family members to block off the main road next to the shantytown as a cry for help, pleading that someone would show interest in her mission to get treatment for her son. Eventually the media showed interest in her plight, and Jeremia was admitted to hospital. But he was soon transferred to another hospital as the first one didn’t know how to treat his addiction to paco.

When referring to her son’s experience, Gonzalez was quite direct, “At the second hospital, the doctors didn’t know what to do with him either, so in the end, they strapped him down to his bed and let the withdrawal pass through him, it was horrible!”

Jeremia underwent almost two years of treatment and rehabilitation. “I needed 18 months of treatment and three months of counselling. But it depends on how much you have taken. Some may need more,” he explains.

“Eventually they put him on some medication, but there were many physical and psychological effects,” his mother added.

Jeremia admits he experienced many low points during his rehabilitation, and at several times used to cut himself to relieve the pressure and pain he was going through.

Looking at the scars on his wrists reveals the horrific reality paco addicts have to go through to get off the drug. Although Jeremia is recovered now, he explains how there are still some lasting effect

“When I was on it, I used to vomit blood and even now every morning I drink a glass of water and throw it back up as my stomach has been damaged so much.”

But he is proud to have managed to leave his old life behind, and is now working, teaching others of the dangers of paco.

Many others are not so lucky, and either die from overdosing, violence related, or even take their own lives.

Who’s to blame?

Many people point the finger at the collapse of the economy in 2001, citing huge unemployment and increasing poverty as the main source for its growing presence in shantytowns and poor communities across Argentina. However it could be argued that there are several other factors contributing to its current detrimental effect on the country.

In the last few years there has been a war waged against drugs cartels across South America with laws imposed to stop the international transportation of the chemicals used to produce cocaine.

This has led to an increasing number of cocaine factories appearing on the continent, and Argentina now has become a country of transportation, production and consumption. Many point the finger at the current president of Bolivia, Evo Morales, and his policy of relaxing the country’s coca production laws. According to a news report produced by Channel 4 in the UK, Morales, a former coca farmer himself, wants to encourage his country to produce coca for natural consumption (chewing the coca leaves has been a national tradition for hundreds of years).

Morales’ policy against producing cocaine for illegal means therefore arguably is very weak. And with little monitoring of the Argentine-Bolivian border and only 10% of Argentina’s airspace covered by radar, traffickers are almost free to transport cocaine into the country.

Giovanni Quaglia, a representative of the United Nation’s Office of Drugs and Crime, agrees, and was quoted on the same news report, saying that: “Evo Morales doesn’t have the capacity to control the huge border which Bolivia shares with Argentina.”

The UN estimates that the number of paco users in Argentina has tripled in the last two years, and some argue that the government is not doing enough to address the problem.

Guillermo Tonini; a 36-year-old former cocaine addict-turned-psychologist said: “The government would rather spend time and money on political campaigns rather than anti-drug campaigns. Basically the government is absent.”

He now is the deputy director at the Revivir Institute, a treatment centre for addicts, run by volunteers. In their institute, 85% of those admitted are for paco. However Tonini argues the problem is not the drug itself.

Paco isn’t the problem; it’s that the government allows the production and distribution of paco to exist. It’s because cocaine has been allowed to exist and be produced in this country for so long that paco has since come to pass.”

Within their treatment centre they have two types of patients: those who receive day care treatment and those who are admitted full time. Revivir has the capacity for 100 full time patients each month, however they average about 130.

Their treatment involves counselling – both group and individual – and also the creation of daily projects and goals for the patients to achieve. These include activities such as cooking, growing organic food, making their own bread and pasta and taking care of the cattle and pigs which they rear to feed themselves. Apart from this, they are educated and are taught to read and write, as many of them cannot.

“Here we make sure that in the final stages of treatment, our patients leave educated and not just academically, but in life also,” stated Tonini. “These people turn to the drug as they previously had no motive or reason in life, but we try and make sure that they do.”

He argues that it is a deep-rooted social problem in Argentina which must be addressed.

“There are many factors: poverty, indolence, lack of education: They have nothing else. There are no other options for them and so they turn to drugs. For example they say that school is obligatory but there aren’t enough schools. I’m very pessimistic about the current situation.”

Revivir is a non-governmental organisation and survives on donations. But Tonini believes that it should not only be left up to such groups to deal with this social problem.

“The problem with Argentina is that the ones in power often abuse it,” says Marcelo Candal, the director of Revivir, also a former addict. He agrees that education is the key, lamenting the lack of funding that goes into it.

Mothers Against Paco

Revivir is just one of the organisations in Argentina trying to help those affected by the drug along with Mothers against Paco. Gonzalez formed this group after seeing her son suffer so much and with the apparent lack of help from anyone else.

“The police do nothing. They beat up the addicts but don’t touch the dealers. If they do catch anyone with a sufficient amount, they consider it ‘personal use’ and simply take it off them. The punishment isn’t severe enough,” she proclaimed.

“These people are ill and every illness has to be treated individually,” she adds. And Gonzalez has the experience to know – despite Jeremia now being clean, her eldest son, Juan, remains a paco addict.

Mothers against Paco is still not recognised as an official association as Gonzalez and the other volunteers cannot afford the $2,000 needed to be registered. The group relies on donations and help within the community. Her home has become much like a community centre for addicts and their family members. Her small house is currently under construction with a second floor being built where her family will live; downstairs is to become a library for addicts and their family members.

The group also organises day events for addicts and their families. For example, recently they had a fun day for over 500 children in the area, most of them children of addicts and toys were donated by companies from the US.

But Gonzalez laments the lack of support from organisations in her own country and the lack of action being taken against those contributing to the problem such as dealers.

Government’s stance

The government believes that there are around 85,000 paco users in Argentina. Other organisations believe that the number of users has increased 500% in the last couple of years with some groups reporting that almost half of the male population in several shantytowns are addicts. However it must be noted that this is a problem that affects both men and women.

Government anti-drugs agency, SEDRONAR, says they are working tirelessly in the fight against this social problem. Graciela Ahumada, director of Investigation against Drugs at SEDRONAR said: “The government isn’t absent. Other people may have a different opinion but we don’t deal with perception we deal with facts. The number one problem with addiction in Argentina is alcohol, then tobacco, then illegal drugs. First marijuana, then cocaine, then paco.”

When asked what SEDRONAR is doing to combat the problem with paco, Ahumada said: “We concentrate more on the social problem of drug addiction as a whole. We have prevention schemes in schools but against substance addiction, not just paco.”

She produced government figures stating that the rise in paco users had now stabilised in the last year whereas marijuana and cocaine users were still increasing.

Ahumada added: “It must be understood that people are usually not only addicted to one substance. Most people who smoke paco will also have problems with marijuana, alcohol, or cocaine.

“We have over 300 people working daily in prevention, investigation, help for drug addiction. Many people will say we aren’t doing anything but they don’t see the work we do. We are constantly working against drugs.”

However Gonzalez and Tonini would disagree as they feel that the government is not taking the problem seriously.

“The government estimates one person dies a day due to paco; I would say more like ten. In the last ten days I know of three people who have died, and that’s just in this area,” said Gonzalez.

She added: “I met with President Kirchner last year to discuss my organisation and what I was trying to achieve and that I needed help from the government. Yes, they said it was important and wanted to take pictures with me and President Kirchner – but I refused. They were only using it as a publicity stunt. They don’t care.”

There seems to be a strong difference in opinion between the government and NGOs in relation to Argentina’s problem with paco.

The truth is that no-one can truly specify the exact damage this drug is doing to Argentina, as everything seems to have been based on opinion and estimates.

The NGOs will say more because they see it every day, whereas the government is going by national statistics. However what is clear is that the government really does have no anti-drugs policy when it comes to paco. It seems like they are underestimating the problem, and until they show increased dedication to the issue, no-one will know the real damage this drug is doing. Until the government addresses the situation with real dedication and focus, the problem is only going to get worse and people like Gonzalez, her sons, and the thousands of others affected, will continue to suffer.

The board of Irrigation of the Tingo river in Perú filed a complaint with the Office of Environment in Cajamarca over the pollution caused by the mining companies.

The users explained that in the rainy season, toxic waste tailings from mining entering the tributaries in great quantity that give rise to the river.

This creates significant pollution in the waters catering to 23 channels of irrigation systems.

Because the complaint, the office undertook an inspection that was not advised to the mining companies.

In turn, the irrigators agreed to hold a vigil to identify companies that are shedding their tails into the streams that give rise to the river.

At the river’s beginning, mining companies conduct their operations in the mine San Nicolás and the mines Sinchao and Corona.

The Chairman of the Board of Irrigation, Raúl Rojas Anticona said that the prosecution withheld the actions to be taken against companies that have been caught throwing their tailings into the river.

At the same time, he recommended that irrigators should be careful when using the water for irrigation.

He said that they have a reddish color which shows a high percentage of toxic substances.

Story courtesy of Agencia Pulsar, a news agency run by AMARC-ALC network of community radios.

The Blacksmith Institute, in its second annual report, found that the top ten worst polluting sites in the world are in developing countries. The institute ranks places according to the scale and toxicity of the pollution and on the numbers of people at risk, particularly focusing on the health impact of children. And surprisingly, Argentina figured in the organsition’s new ‘Dirty Thirty’ list for the first time.

“These are places that when you travel to you have an inherent sense of desolation and disgust at what man has wrought,” explained Richard Fuller, president of Blacksmith Institute. The places that made the list are ones in which chronic pollution ‘damages children’s development and growth, causes chronic illnesses, and kills thousands of people indiscriminately’. The World Bank estimates that there are upward of a billion people whose lives are shortened because of contamination of industry and mining. One can assume that the large majority of that billion are living in poor, developing countries since the top ten sites are located in China, Russia, Azerbaijan, India, Perú, Ukraine, and Zambia.

Environmental discrimination exists when a certain sector of the population, especially vulnerable sectors, assumes a disproportionate burden of the effects of human-induced environmental degradation. All of society reaps the benefits of industrialisation but only a certain economic class bears the burden of its toxic wrath.

One site on the list is Tianying in the province Anhui in China. It is one of the largest lead production bases in China, with an output accounting for half of the country’s total production. According to the report, potentially 140,000 people, particularly children, suffer from lead poisoning and its related effects: lead encephalopathy, lower IQs, short attention spans, learning disabilities, hyperactivity, impaired physical growth, hearing and visual problems, stomach aches, irritation of the colon, kidney malfunction, anaemia and brain damage. Pregnant women have also reported numerous cases of premature births and smaller, underdeveloped infants.

Vulnerable groups such as poor or excluded sectors, minorities, ethnic enclaves, indigenous communities, immigrants, and other marginalised sectors, are more likely to be affected by environmental contamination, since they are usually the least likely, least driven, or least able to mobilise against such abuse.

An industrial city founded in 1935 as a slave labour camp, the Siberian city of Norilsk also made the list. Mining and smelting operations began in the

1930s and this city now contains the world’s largest heavy metals smelting complex, where nearly 500 tonnes each of copper and nickel oxides and two million tonnes of sulphur dioxide are released annually into the air. The snow is black, the air tastes of sulphur and nothing, not even a blade of grass, can grow within 50km of the town.

Norilsk Nickel, the firm responsible for the pollution, is one of Russia’s leading producers of non-ferrous and platinum-group metals. It controls one-third of the world’s nickel deposits and accounts for a substantial portion of the country’s total production of nickel, cobalt, platinum, and palladium. It also ranks first among Russian industrial enterprises in terms of air pollution.

When poor, marginalised, sickly people who are choking on the air they breathe and dying from the water they drink are pitted against powerful huge companies how are they to compete and demand cleanup? According to the report: “Often insidious and unseen, and usually in places with deficient and exhausted health systems, pollution is an unacknowledged burden on the poor and marginalised in the developing world. It is a major factor impairing economic growth, and a significant strain on the lives of already impoverished people.”

Director of global operations, David Hanrahan said, “There is a very unfortunate synergy that in many places these activities that are creating all the pollution are also generating local employment.”

One site on the list where this is true is Dzerzhinsk, Russia, which until the end of the Cold War was among Russia’s principal production sites of chemical weapons. A quarter of the city’s 300,000 residents are still employed in factories that produce toxic chemicals. In 2003, the death rate was reported to exceed the birth rate by 260% and the average life expectancy close to that of medieval times: 42 years for men and 47 for women.

Hanrahan also said: “There are very poor people living next to extremely polluting plants simply because they need to be there to be first in line to get the jobs and all of that will hopefully eventually improve with economic growth.”

In addition to this years list of the top ten, the Blacksmith Institute also compiled a list called the Dirty Thirty, which included The 64km Matanza-Riachuelo River that flows from western Buenos Aires into the Río de la Plata Estuary. Along the river basin are more than 3,500 polluting tanneries, oil, chemical, and metal plants, illicit sewage pipes and 42 open garbage dumps along the river itself. Uncoordinated government action and a lack of environmental controls have allowed industries to dump their effluents into the river indiscriminately. One area is known as the ‘flammable slum’ because it lies above a toxic dump.

Reportedly, half of the children have lead poisoning, along with respiratory and dermatological problems. One study by the Japanese International Cooperation Agency found that 50% of the children aged seven to 11 have traces of lead in their blood and 10% have chlorine in their urine. Overall health statistics for the residents are poor.

Vulnerable groups suffer disproportionately from environmental degradation. This is in essence a clear form of discrimination that needs to be addressed by local, national and international actors.