The River
The Matanza River is known by several names, including, in
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...
, Río de la Matanza ("the slaughter river" in English), Río Matanza ("slaughter river"), Río Mataderos ("slaughterhouses river"), Río de la Manzana ("the apple river") or simply Riachuelo ("little river"). It is a stream in
Argentina
Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
that originates in the
Buenos Aires Province
Buenos Aires (), officially the Buenos Aires Province (''Provincia de Buenos Aires'' ), is the largest and most populous Argentine province. It takes its name from the city of Buenos Aires, the capital of the country, which used to be part of th ...
and defines the southern boundary of the
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...
federal district. It empties into the
Río de la Plata
The Río de la Plata (, "river of silver"), also called the River Plate or La Plata River in English, is the estuary formed by the confluence of the Uruguay River and the Paraná River at Punta Gorda. It empties into the Atlantic Ocean and fo ...
between
Tandanor
Tandanor (an acronym for Talleres Navales Dársena Norte) is an Argentine shipyard located south of Buenos Aires port which together with Almirante Storni yard constitutes CINAR (Argentina's Industrial and Naval Compound) dedicated to shipbuildin ...
and
Dock Sud
Dock Sud is a town of Avellaneda Partido in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. It forms part of the urban agglomeration of Greater Buenos Aires.
The area is characterized by its predominantly working-class background, with many of its inhabita ...
. The
La Boca
La Boca (; "the Mouth", probably of the Matanza River) is a neighborhood (''barrio'') of Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina. It retains a strong Italian flavour, many of its early settlers having originated in the city of Genoa.
Geography
L ...
neighbourhood
A neighbourhood (British English, Irish English, Australian English and Canadian English) or neighborhood (American English; see spelling differences) is a geographically localised community within a larger city, town, suburb or rural are ...
and the
Boca Juniors
Club Atlético Boca Juniors () is an Argentine sports club headquartered in La Boca, a neighbourhood of Buenos Aires. The club is mostly known for its professional football team which, since its promotion in 1913, has always played in the A ...
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
club are located near the stream's mouth. The Spanish word ''boca'' means "mouth".
The river's course has been
canalized
River engineering is a discipline of civil engineering which studies human intervention in the course, characteristics, or flow of a river with the intention of producing some defined benefit. People have intervened in the natural course and b ...
and
channelized in places, especially along its lower course.
![Puente Nicolás Avellaneda-Buenos Aires](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b5/Puente_Nicol%C3%A1s_Avellaneda-Buenos_Aires.jpg)
From its source down to La Noria Bridge on
Avenida General Paz
Avenida General Paz (official name Ruta Nacional A001 - National Route A001) is a beltway freeway surrounding the city of Buenos Aires. Roughly following the boundary between the city and Buenos Aires Province, it is one of the few motorways in ...
, the river is usually referred to as ''Río La Matanza'', and from that point onwards as ''Riachuelo''. Approximately 3.5 million people live in its
drainage basin
A drainage basin is an area of land where all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, t ...
of .
The south-easterly storm wind, known as ''Sudestada'', hinders the waters of the Riachuelo from reaching the Río de la Plata, producing frequent flooding in low-lying areas like La Boca and
Barracas. Since 1995 a number of
flood control
Flood control methods are used to reduce or prevent the detrimental effects of flood waters."Flood Control", MSN Encarta, 2008 (see below: Further reading). Flood relief methods are used to reduce the effects of flood waters or high water level ...
projects have been carried out to prevent such occurrences.
The Matanza's main
tributaries
A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or main stem (or parent) river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries and the main stem river drain the surrounding drainage b ...
are the Cañuelas, Chacón, and Morales streams in the Province of Buenos Aires, and the Cildáñez stream (currently piped) in the
Greater Buenos Aires
Greater Buenos Aires ( es, Gran Buenos Aires, GBA), also known as the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area ( es, Área Metropolitana de Buenos Aires, AMBA), refers to the urban agglomeration comprising the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires and the adjac ...
urban area.
Environmental Issues
The Matanza basin is the most polluted river in
Latin America
Latin America or
* french: Amérique Latine, link=no
* ht, Amerik Latin, link=no
* pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived f ...
and it is considered one of the ten most polluted places globally, with very high levels of lead. One of the main reasons why it is polluted is that the river receives large amounts of
industrial waste
Industrial waste is the waste produced by industrial activity which includes any material that is rendered useless during a manufacturing process such as that of factories, mills, and mining operations. Types of industrial waste include dirt and ...
from the numerous factories along the river, especially tanneries. Among the most dangerous contaminants are
heavy metals
upright=1.2, Crystals of osmium, a heavy metal nearly twice as dense as lead">lead.html" ;"title="osmium, a heavy metal nearly twice as dense as lead">osmium, a heavy metal nearly twice as dense as lead
Heavy metals are generally defined as ...
and waste water from the basin's saturated layers. 25% of children living in urban
slum
A slum is a highly populated urban residential area consisting of densely packed housing units of weak build quality and often associated with poverty. The infrastructure in slums is often deteriorated or incomplete, and they are primarily inh ...
s along the water’s edge have lead in their bloodstreams, and even more suffer from gastrointestinal and respiratory illness. A contentious political subject since at least the 1862–68 administration of President
Bartolomé Mitre
Bartolomé Mitre Martínez (26 June 1821 – 19 January 1906) was an Argentine statesman, soldier and author. He was President of Argentina from 1862 to 1868 and the first president of unified Argentina.
Mitre is known as the most versatile ...
,
the Riachuelo's plight has attracted the attention of other public figures, notably artist and
Greenpeace
Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning network, founded in Canada in 1971 by Irving Stowe and Dorothy Stowe, immigrant environmental activists from the United States. Greenpeace states its goal is to "ensure the ability of the Earth t ...
activist
Nicolás García Uriburu
Nicolás García Uriburu (December 24, 1937 – June 19, 2016) was an Argentine contemporary artist, landscape architect, and ecologist. His work in land art was aimed at raising consciousness about environmental issues such as water pollution.
...
, who planned to dye the waterway green in 1970, and later carried through on
World Water Day
World Water Day is an annual United Nations (UN) observance day held on 22 March that highlights the importance of fresh water. The day is used to advocate for the sustainable management of freshwater resources. The theme of each year focuses o ...
(March 22) in 2010, to draw attention to the problem.
1990's Clean Up Project
In 1993, President
Carlos Menem
Carlos Saúl Menem (2 July 1930 – 14 February 2021) was an Argentine lawyer and politician who served as the President of Argentina from 1989 to 1999. Ideologically, he identified as a Peronist and supported economically liberal policies. H ...
's Secretary of Environment,
María Julia Alsogaray
María Julia Alsogaray (October 8, 1942 – September 24, 2017) was an Argentine politician and engineer convicted in 2004 for financial crimes against the state.
Biography
The second of three children of socialite Edith Gay and conservative poli ...
, presented a 3-year project to clean up the Riachuelo that was approved, but never started, let alone concluded. Alsogaray would later be prosecuted for misappropriation of those public funds.
According to Argentine newspaper ''
Página/12'', of the 250-million-dollar budget, only $90 million remain; $6 million were lost in punitive interests, $150 million were destined to unrelated social projects, and only $1 million was used for the actual cleanup. Critics have also noted that this cleanup was in vain, as all that was done was to remove sunken ship hulls, but nothing was done to prevent newly abandoned ships from sinking. A period of optimism regarding the waterway's condition followed announcements in 2006 by President
Néstor Kirchner
Néstor Carlos Kirchner (; 25 February 195027 October 2010) was an Argentine lawyer and politician who served as the President of Argentina from 2003 to 2007, Governor of Santa Cruz Province from 1991 to 2003, Secretary General of UNASUR and ...
that the Riachuelo's improvement would be prioritized; but, though some efforts were undertaken,
[ the river remains a source of health problems and urban blight for its adjoining neighbourhoods. Environmental cleanup efforts have been supplemented by ]urban renewal
Urban renewal (also called urban regeneration in the United Kingdom and urban redevelopment in the United States) is a program of land redevelopment often used to address urban decay in cities. Urban renewal involves the clearing out of blighte ...
proposals for the area.
Supreme Court lawsuit
In 2004, a group of residents of the Matanza basin, living in one of the worst-polluted urban slums, filed a case before the Supreme Court of Argentina
The Supreme Court of Argentina ( es, link=no, Corte Suprema de Argentina), officially known as the Supreme Court of Justice of the Argentine Nation ( es, link=no, Corte Suprema de Justicia de la Nación Argentina, CSJN), is the highest court of l ...
, against the national government, the provincial government, the municipality, and several private companies. The case was named the Mendoza case, after Beatriz Mendoza, one of the residents filing the case. They were asking compensation for the environmental damages they faced as a consequence of the environmental contamination of the river, and they required the halting of contamination activities. In July 2008 the Argentinian Supreme Court issued its decision, recognising the federal government’s liability, together with the city and province of Buenos Aires, for the environmental damages in the river. The Court recognised the residents' right to a healthy environment and that the governments had to repair the damage. The Court ordered the governments to: (a) improve the quality of life for the people living in the area, (b) remediate the ecological damage of the basin and (c) prevent further contamination. However, the Court did not issue any decision with regard to the private companies involved. Five NGO
A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in h ...
s that had been active in the case - including Greenpeace
Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning network, founded in Canada in 1971 by Irving Stowe and Dorothy Stowe, immigrant environmental activists from the United States. Greenpeace states its goal is to "ensure the ability of the Earth t ...
- were also involved by the Court, that appointed them as patrols for the river and surrounding areas, to control how the improvements and works planned for the river basin were carried out.
See also
*List of rivers of Argentina
This is a list of rivers of Argentina.
Longest Rivers
By drainage basin
This list is arranged by drainage basin, with respective tributaries indented under each larger stream's name. Rivers in the table above are in bold.
La Plata Basin
* Rí ...
References
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Google Maps is a web mapping platform and consumer application offered by Google. It offers satellite imagery, aerial photography, street maps, 360° interactive panoramic views of streets ( Street View), real-time traffic conditions, and rou ...
an
GeoLocator
}
Matanza
Greater Buenos Aires
La Matanza Partido
Avellaneda
Rivers of Buenos Aires Province
La Plata basin