Ecobreves – ARGENTINA: Calls for Highway's Environmental Impact Study

By IPS Correspondents and - - Reprint | | Print |

BUENOS AIRES, Sep 9 2006 (IPS) - Residents and environmentalists in the central Argentine province of Córdoba denounced that for the past six months a 25-km road project has been under way to unite two tourist towns, but that they haven't been given access to the environmental impact study. Víctor Ricco, with the Center for Human Rights and the Environment, told Tierramérica that since April there have been “numerous meetings” with members of the provincial roads agency who have avoided showing them copies of the highway project's environmental authorization.

The residents want to know exactly where the highway — to connect Salsipuedes (a town of 6,400 people) and Valle Hermoso (5,000) — as well as plans for mitigation of future potential environmental harm, he explained.

“The problem is not the paving, but rather the lack of access to information,” Ricco said.