Four years after the Supreme Court of Argentina ordered the clean-up of the Riachuelo River basin, in the province of Buenos Aires, environmentalists recognize that progress has been made, but there are still numerous challenges pending. “There have been efforts to clean up the riverbanks and the riverbed, garbage dumps have been moved, and factories have been inspected, but we are concerned over the lack of a state policy that will function without continuous judicial pressure,” activist Andrés Napoli of the Environment and Natural Resources Foundation told Tierramérica.

This month the foundation published an evaluation of the progress and delays in the clean-up of the river basin and the relocation of the population living there, ordered by the Supreme Court on Jul. 8, 2008 for what is considered the most polluted river in Argentina.

The report acknowledges that the Supreme Court sentence marked a turning point by “breaking the inertia” around the problem, but adds that there are still a series of pending challenges to be tackled.