ENVIRONMENT: Uruguay and Brazil at Loggerheads over Acid Rain

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Raul Ronzoni

MONTEVIDEO, Aug 28 1996 (IPS) - Ten years after Uruguay first protested that acid rain caused by a Brazilian thermoelectric plant was damaging crops and people’s health on the border, the problem continues to rankle. Meanwhile, the plant is preparing to step up production.

“Brazil’s promises to solve the problem have not been fulfilled. And the issue now goes above and beyond the aspects of health and environmental pollution, in the light of the MERCOSUR’s (Southern Common Market) process of regional integration,” Uruguay’s Deputy Minister of Housing and the Environment, Juan Gabito, told IPS.

Gabito pointed out that in the bid by Uruguay and its MERCOSUR partners – Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay – to increase their exports, the natural, pollution-free quality of their agricultural products is stressed.

Medical reports from the northeastern Uruguayan department of Cerro Largo, which borders the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, indicate that one out of five patients suffers from respiratory problems caused by air pollution.

The 91,000 inhabitants and the crops of the department of Cerro Largo, 400 kilometres from Montevideo, face unknown consequences from the risk posed by air pollution.

Dr. Walter Milan, director of health at the Cerro Largo Public Health Ministry, said the pollution produced by the Brazilian plant, Candiota, is one of the chief factors leading to a high incidence of allergies, lung cancer and respiratory problems in the area.

He said the high level of acidity in the rains over Cerro Largo has been demonstrated, and added that it is the only place in Uruguay where phenomenon such as obvious changes in the colour of leaves on trees and crops can be seen.

The plant, 80 kilometres from the Uruguayan border, is located on the largest surface coal mine in Latin America.

The coal is used to fuel the turbines that generate electricity, which produces nitrous anhydride and sulphurous anhydride. Those compounds combine with water in the atmosphere to become nitric acid and sulphuric acid, which are transported by the clouds that generate acid rain.

The acid rain damages trees and plants, hurts the skin and teeth of animals, and contributes to higher death rates among animals.

But the plant is planning to increase its production from 446 to 2,100 megawatts over the next few years – meaning the pollution could extend to the rest of Uruguay, experts warn.

Uruguay’s Ministry of the Environment will send specialists from a number of fields to the area in early September to update environmental impact studies.

Recent studies from Brazil report that there is no evidence of pollution.

But the Uruguayan government demands that samples be taken from the mouths of the plant’s chimneys and compared with samples collected in Uruguay, which would provide “fingerprint-style proof” of the plant’s responsibility for the pollution, said Gabito.

He added that Brazil has not yet carried out the tests it has promised, but that once the evidence is in, “it will have no more excuses” for delaying tactics that take advantage of “diplomatic bureaucracy.”

Uruguay is an advocate of investment in pollution-fighting equipment and measures, said Gabito, especially in a case such as Candiota, where costs are low due to the use of coal.

The Uruguayan official said Brazilians should also take interest in the issue, because crops in their territory are also affected by the pollution.

“We are all in the same boat” in the MERCOSUR, and regional exports touted as “natural” could be hurt by attitudes such as Brazil’s, Gabito argued.

Meanwhile, the mistrust created by Brazil’s failure to make good on its promises to seek a solution to the problem has spread to the sphere of politics.

Uruguayan Deputy Humberto Pica, who represents Cerro Largo, said Brazil has shown absolutely no interest in determining whether or not the plant is responsible for pollution. He added that accords reached by the two countries to clarify a situation that has become a “toxic aggression” are mere “desires for binational cooperation that never happens.”