ENVIRONMENT-LATAM: Industrialisation Leaves Minefield of Problems

By Mario Osava Reprint | | Print |

Mario Osava

RIO DE JANEIRO, May 24 2002 (IPS) - The industrialisation process, widely perceived as synonymous to development, leaves in its wake vast areas contaminated with chemicals, the effects of which may not be triggered until decades later, as is occurring in Brazil.

Tens of thousands of people living in two neighbourhoods of the metropolitan area of Sao Paulo, capital of Brazil’s most industrialised state, risk becoming victims of explosions or of serious illness due to the waste that was buried two or three decades ago where their houses now stand.

The Sao Paulo Environmental Secretariat identified 255 contaminated areas within the state jurisdiction that pose similar risks. But only 145 are seeing efforts to recover the industrial waste and clean up the sites.

These time bombs were the focus of attention at the first international Symposium on Environment and Sustainable Development of Industrial Municipalities, held this week in Paulinia, a city 100 km from Sao Paulo.

The danger is not limited to the soil of illegal dumpsites, but extends to the air and water of urban areas as well.

The Tieté and Paraíba do Sul Rivers, which are fed with waste from industries in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro states, are among Brazil’s most polluted rivers, said Dorival Bruni, president of the Environmental Biosphere Institute, which organised the symposium.

A rigorous effort to clean up the Tieté, which crosses the Sao Paulo metropolitan area, would take 30 to 50 years, Bruni told IPS.

Paulinia was chosen as the host-site for the seminar due to the interest of the local authorities in the problem, but also because it is home to the petro-chemical industry and is the victim of numerous industrial accidents.

The case that has had the greatest impact in recent years is that of Recanto de los Pájaros, a district of 60 homes with areas for growing vegetables.

A factory belonging to Shell, the Dutch-British oil transnational, contaminated the area’s soil in the late 1970s and early 1980s, but only admitted to the fact in 1994. However, the corporation refuses to accept all the responsibilities that the courts have mandated for compensating and relocating the residents.

Such waste sites are largely the consequence of the “savage” industrialisation process from the 1950s through the 1970s, when environmental awareness and legislation were practically non- existent, commented Sao Paulo State Environment Secretary, José Goldemberg.

But the new laws and the environmental authorities have proved unable to prevent incidents whose origins lie in current circumstances. In recent weeks, it was found that at least 136 children have excessive levels of mercury in their blood in the town of Baurú, 340 km from Sao Paulo.

All of the children live near the Ajax battery factory, whose executives acknowledged responsibility in the contamination. High levels of mercury in the blood can cause neurological problems and mental retardation. The company promised to compensate the victims and to pay for the necessary medical attention.

Mexico faces a situation similar to Brazil’s, resulting from increased industrialisation in recent years and high concentrations of population, but advances have been made in environmental matters, according to Alejandro Rebolledo, director of the Mexico City Environmental Research Laboratories.

The expert, one of the 200 who made presentations during the symposium in Paulinia, stated that much of the progress is due to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which unites Mexico with Canada and the United States.

The trade bloc has allowed Mexico to obtain more resources while opening the Latin American country to pressure from U.S.- based environmental groups, said Rebolledo.

The new environmental requirements under NAFTA create a new market, particularly for treating solid waste.

This environmentally beneficial industry should see investments of 8.0 billion dollars throughout Latin America over the next four years, calculated the expert.

The issue is up for debate in the Brazilian Congress, which is preparing to vote on a bill on solid waste management.

The environmental agenda still has scant political weight in Brazil, because the related legislative bills are a lower priority than economic emergencies, said lawmaker Emerson Kapaz, author of the solid waste bill.

At the symposium, the 1,500 participants approved a charter recommending the creation of a Brazilian Association of Industrial Cities and of a National Centre for Environmental Disaster Prevention and Reparations.

There are around 350 industrial municipalities in Brazil, a country of 167 million people. However, a relatively limited amount – 500 million dollars annually – is invested in preventing ecological disasters, said the Biosphere Institute leader Bruni.

In the United States and Japan, investment in disaster prevention totals 10 billion and five billion dollars, respectively, he added, pointing out that the costs arising from otherwise preventable catastrophes are much higher.