Toxic waters, broken promises: Argentina's fight for river restoration

Alfredo Alberti, president of Asociación de Vecinos La Boca, has spent nearly two decades fighting for a clean Riachuelo. From his home in Buenos Aires’ La Boca neighborhood, just ten blocks from one of Latin America’s most polluted waterways, he has watched generations suffer from pollution-linked illnesses: cancers, birth defects, and lead poisoning in children. 

Today, at 79, he carries the weight of broken promises.

When Argentina’s Supreme Court issued its historic 2008 ruling demanding the cleanup of the Riachuelo River, its waters bore the weight of more than 200 years of contamination. But just last year, in a decision that sent shockwaves through neighborhoods and environmental circles, the Supreme Court of Argentina abruptly ended its monitoring and oversight of the cleanup process.

“When we won the court ruling in 2008, we thought we had made it,” Alberti recalls. “We celebrated. But people warned me, ‘Alfredo, after you win, you have to keep pushing to make sure the ruling is carried out.’ They were right. And now, after all these years, I know I won’t see a clean Riachuelo in my lifetime.”

Alberti’s disillusionment is shared by thousands living along the Matanza-Riachuelo Basin. Once a lifeline for trade and industry, today, chemical plants and factories nationwide continue to pollute the river, saturating it with toxins that impact the lives of the 4.7 million residents in the surrounding area. 

The Riachuelo’s contamination is a product of centuries of industrial and governmental neglect. Starting in the early 19th century, saladeros—meat salting plants—slaughterhouses, and leather factories dumped animal fat, blood, and entrails directly into the river. As Buenos Aires grew, chemical plants and unregulated industries saturated the basin with toxins. Poor regulation and a lack of urban planning led to an environmental and public health disaster. Covering 2,238 km² and stretching across 14 municipalities, the basin became an inferno for low-income communities, where poverty and pollution remain deeply intertwined.

Unlike rivers in other major cities, which serve as economic and social hubs, the Riachuelo became a toxic divide, first separating rural and urban spaces, later splitting administrative jurisdictions. Decades of state neglect during rapid urbanization left the basin outside city development plans, turning it into a dumping ground for untreated sewage, abandoned vessels, and industrial waste. Even in La Boca, one of Buenos Aires’ most emblematic neighborhoods, arsenic, lead, and chemical effluents continue to seep into the lives of residents.

Local organisations, such as the Asociación de Vecinos La Boca, have been instrumental in holding authorities accountable. As part of the Cuerpo Colegiado—a body established by the Supreme Court in 2008 to monitor the Riachuelo's cleanup, comprising the Defensor del Pueblo de la Nación (national ombudsman) and several NGOs including Greenpeace Argentina and Fundación Ambiente y Recursos Naturales (FARN)—the association ensures that the voices of affected communities are heard. 

However, since the resignation of Argentina’s last national ombudsman in 2009, the Cuerpo Colegiado has operated without a key accountability figure. Meanwhile, the state agency Autoridad de Cuenca Matanza Riachuelo (ACUMAR), tasked with leading cleanup efforts, has faced repeated budget cuts and bureaucratic inefficiencies, making cleanup efforts inconsistent at best. Just in May 2024, under Javier Milei’s libertarian government, the agency slashed its workforce by 35%, laying off 40 employees in a single month. These austerity measures have fueled skepticism among residents, who see a pattern of mistreatment rather than genuine progress.

In October 2024, the Supreme Court further derailed cleanup efforts by abruptly ending its oversight of the process. Environmental advocates decried the move, warning that without judicial pressure, industries would continue to pollute unchecked. 

Two weeks later, the entire Cuerpo Colegiado filed an appeal, arguing that oversight was essential to prevent backsliding. Their plea was ignored. Experts within the body suggest the next legal step may involve turning to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, but that process could take years—time that local communities do not have.

FARN’s videographic report, Las condiciones de salud de los habitantes de la Cuenca (The Health Conditions of Basin Residents), highlights the daily struggles of those living near the contaminated river. Moisés "Pepe" Vallejos, a resident of Villa 21, a well-known low-income settlement bordering the Riachuelo, describes how locals have learned to avoid contact with the water. 

“Sometimes we had problems with our skin, rashes on our legs and face, adults mostly,” he says. “We are always careful because we know there is household waste, so nobody comes close to the water here.”

But the consequences extend far beyond skin rashes. Dr. Silvia Ferrer, a pediatrician specialising in environmental health and epidemiology, explains that diseases such as diarrhea, hepatitis A, and parasitic infections thrive in areas without access to clean water or proper sanitation. “The lack of access to safe drinking water causes, without a doubt, diarrhea, parasitosis, hepatitis A. The solution is not just expanding vaccine coverage or treating diarrhea, which is indeed done, but extending water and sewer systems,” she insists. “The solution to the health problem does not lie within the health system itself.”

For vulnerable groups like children under six and the elderly, lead exposure has irreversible consequences. Yet, local communities complain of inadequate monitoring and intervention, especially for children with high blood lead levels. Without judicial oversight, many fear the situation will only deteriorate further. In Milei’s Argentina, there is little room for environmental actions, and residents are worried that the right to a healthy environment—enshrined in Argentina's Constitution as a fundamental right—has been disregarded entirely.

But has the Supreme Court always been uninterested in the Riachuelo?

Raúl Estrada-Oyuela, honorary member of the Asociación de Vecinos La Boca and president of the Argentine Academy of Environmental Sciences, argues that the problem stems from a lack of institutional expertise. “The Court never had the necessary information. Never. Not even when it issued the 2008 ruling,” he told FairPlanet. 

When the case first reached the Court in 2004, the process was marred by incomplete data. Even in 2007, after years of requests for information, the Court sought input from the University of Buenos Aires. The university’s response was damning: “With the data provided, we cannot give an accurate assessment. The information is insufficient.”

Estrada-Oyuela criticises the justice system’s lack of environmental specialists. “The judiciary in Argentina has medical experts, but no equivalent for environmental matters,” he says. 

With the national ombudsman position left vacant and the Cuerpo Colegiado lacking resources, oversight of the cleanup became increasingly ineffective. 

“We don’t have a budget to hire necessary experts. Instead, we rely on favors, calling in old friends to lend a hand. But that’s no way to operate. It seems today that the people who truly care about the environment are the ones with the least resources to protect it.”

He describes the Supreme Court’s 2024 ruling as “a barbarity,” arguing that it ignored the actual conditions of the river and instead relied on ACUMAR’s reports. “ACUMAR shapes the truth and highlights cosmetic changes,” Estrada-Oyuela asserts. He points to the removal of sunken ships and trash from the riverbanks as superficial improvements. 

“People might say, ‘Oh, how nice,’ but the reality is that if you look at the water, it is twice as contaminated today as it was in 2008.”

Alberti, too, has lost faith in the system. “For years, we took to the streets, raised our voices, presented evidence, demanded answers. But time takes its toll, the body tires, and the system keeps running on the same perverse logic: power protects the powerful, while the environment is reduced to an empty slogan in official speeches.”

“I take comfort in knowing that young people are still fighting,” he says, holding onto the hope that others will carry the torch. “I just hope they don’t wear them down like they did to us.”

Image by Walter "CheToba" De Boever.