This week, a stream outside of Argentina’s capital Buenos Aires turned bright red, urging residents to express concerns that industrial chemicals could be held responsible.
A resident of Salandi, about six miles south of the capital, told a local news outlet that several factories and tanned chemicals in the area may have changed the colour of the stream. Argentina and Uruguay.
The rivers in this area have a history of pollution problems. For example, the Matanza Riachuero River Basin is known as one of the most polluted waterways in Latin America. Authorities have announced major public works projects to prevent sewage and industrial runoff from entering the basin.
The Buenos Aires Ministry of the Environment said in a statement that it had responded to a report that the Salandi stream was red on Thursday morning and that it had collected water samples for testing. It said that the strange hue could be the result of “some organic dye.” A ministry spokesperson said on Friday that the test results are not available yet.
Maria Ducommeles, who has lived in the area for over 30 years, told the Agens France Press that after the strong smell woke up, she noticed that the stream had turned red. Argentine newspaper La Nacion described it as “a trash-like nauseating smell.”
“It looked like a bloody river,” Ducomuls said.
She said the stream had changed to other strange colors over the years – bluish, greenish, purpleish, pink – and sometimes with an oily sheen. “That’s terrible,” she said.
Moira Zellner, a professor of public policy and urban affairs at Northern Stan University, grew up in Buenos Aires and worked as an environmental consultant for river and land restoration projects in the 1990s. Pollution issues in this area.
“Unfortunately, I’m not that surprised,” she said of the red colour of Salandi’s stream. “The rivers in Buenos Aires have a huge, long history of pollution, which is truly heartbreaking. I know that some of the groups that settled there are really suffering from the consequences.”
Carlos Colangello, chairman of the Buenos Aires province’s Professional Chemistry Council, told local news outlet infobae.com that he was concerned that the chemicals could have been dumped into the stream.
“We have to wait for the results of our analysis, but we can say that the company that abandoned this is completely uncruel,” he said. “I don’t think they’re chemical experts.
