Ecobreves – ARGENTINA: Complaints Against Draining of Paraná Delta

By IPS Correspondents and - - Reprint | | Print |

BUENOS AIRES, Dec 15 2008 (IPS) - Residents of the town of Baradero, in the north of Buenos Aires province, have sounded the alarm about the construction of embankments intended to drain part of the Paraná River delta. “We are preparing a lawsuit and we hope it has the same result as in Esteros del Iberá,” one of the residents, architect José Serpi, told Tierramérica, referring to a recent court ruling ordering the demolition of an embankment built in the wetlands of the northeastern province of Corrientes.

In Baradero, the Pazzaglia company, which owns 12,000 hectares of the delta, built dikes, embankments, canals and set up floodgates and pumps to control the natural flow of the water along a stretch that that flows into the Paraná, said Serpi.

The municipal authorities are not protecting the area, nor are they requiring environmental impact studies for the constructions, which could cause flooding, he said.