Ecobreves – EL SALVADOR: Denouncing Contamination

By IPS Correspondents and - - Reprint | | Print |

SAN SALVADOR, Aug 4 2002 (IPS) - An environmental organization will present the Central American Water Tribunal with three charges of contamination against the government and several companies of El Salvador. The first claim the Salvadoran Ecological Union will file is against the Salvadoran government for its intent to build a superspeed highway that the group claims would cause serious environmental harm in the capital's outskirts.

The two other claims are against industries that pollute the Frío River, west of San Salvador, and against a project to build a hydroelectric plant on the Torola River.

At least 10 Costa Rican and Salvadoran experts are to meet in the coming days to study the evidence that the environmentalists are presenting in the three cases.

The Costa Rica-based Central American Water Tribunal is a non-governmental organization that carries out “moral trials” against governments and companies that commit environmental crimes. The Tribunal's rulings are of a symbolic nature only.