Global IssuesARGENTINA-URUGUAY: Joint Environmental Monitoring, a Way Forward?
A mutual inspection system, like the one Argentina and Brazil have developed for the nuclear industry, could contribute to solving the conflict between Argentina and Uruguay over pulp mills on border rivers.
'A group of professional inspectors for mutual monitoring would create trust, and the idea could be extended to Mercosur,' Federico Merke, a professor of international relations at the private Universidad del Salvador in Buenos Aires, told IPS, referring to the Southern Common Market (Mercosur) made up of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay.
The governments of Argentina and Uruguay are working towards a solution to the dispute over the installation of the Orion pulp mill, belonging to the Finnish company UPM (formerly owned by Botnia) on the Uruguayan side of the Uruguay river.
The plant, which produces 3,000 tonnes of pulp a day, is staunchly opposed by residents and environmental activists on the Argentine side of the river because of fears of pollution.
In the light of this conflict, Merke called to mind that Argentina and Brazil created the Brazilian-Argentine Agency for Accounting and Control of Nuclear Materials (ABACC), which has monitored peaceful uses of atomic energy in both countries for the past 18 years.
ABACC has carried out some 1,200 inspections in mines, storage facilities and nuclear power stations. In 2009, 58 inspections were held in Argentina and 60 in Brazil. 'It is a successful and original model that is being observed with interest by experts in India and Pakistan,' Merke said.
The same idea could be applied to pulp mills, meat processing plants or tanneries, whether publicly or privately owned, on the banks of the Uruguay river or other border rivers, said Merke.
But in the view of the former head of environmental affairs at the Argentine Foreign Ministry, Raúl Estrada Oyuela, 'it is not human resources to study the problem and come up with solutions that are lacking.' 'Rather, it is that this is not on the political agenda,' he told IPS.
The expert said that 'a joint environmental policy is possible, but not probable.' Such a policy ought to be put into effect throughout Mercosur, but 'additions to the bloc's main focus on trade, such as environmental or cultural issues, are still regarded as secondary matters.'
In Estrada Oyuela's view, in order for there to be a 'comprehensive agreement' about the rivers shared between Argentina and Uruguay, 'environmental policies backed up by laws and effective measures are needed' in both countries.
Residents of the Argentine city of Gualeguaychú, located 25 km from the plant on a tributary of the Uruguay river, have blocked a border bridge off and on for the past five years, mainly during the southern hemisphere summer, to protest against the Orion pulp mill.
In 2006, Argentina turned to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, accusing Uruguay of violating the treaty that governs the joint management of the Uruguay river when it authorised construction of the pulp mill.
In April, the ICJ ruled that Uruguay had broken some aspects of the treaty, but that there was no conclusive evidence that the pulp mill -- which has been in operation for two years -- had polluted the river.
The ruling was protested by the Gualeguaychú Citizens' Environmental Assembly, but prompted renewed efforts by the two governments to overcome the rift that has marred the traditionally close bilateral relations over the last few years.
Argentine President Cristina Fernández and Uruguayan President José Mujica 'have shown they are on the same wavelength,' according to Merke, and the governments are looking into how to live up the ICJ ruling, which recommends environmental monitoring of the river.
The joint technical commission set up under the Uruguay river treaty to administer the river has been charged with this task. But pending political issues could stand in the way of a solution to the conflict.
President Fernández has not yet managed, as agreed in talks with Mujica, to get the protesters from Gualeguaychú to lift the roadblock across one of the three bridges linking the two countries over the Uruguay river.
The government of her predecessor and husband Néstor Kirchner (2003-2007) initially supported the protesters and environmentalists before distancing itself from them.
But the Fernández administration is now determined to clear the roadblock, which has caused economic losses for Uruguay and difficulties for tourists and others on both sides. However, it says it will not use force.
Last week, the Argentine government filed a lawsuit in federal court against leaders of the movement blocking the bridge.
This marks a change of strategy following the ruling issued by the ICJ, as consolidated in several meetings between the two governments.
Meanwhile, Uruguay is amenable to joint monitoring of the river, but is resistant to the idea of inspections by Argentine experts within the pulp mill itself, based on arguments of national sovereignty and the fact that such inspections are not stipulated by the Uruguay river treaty.
Merke and other analysts say both countries need to make progress on bilateral, and even sub-regional, cooperation, above and beyond specific issues such as the roadblock by Gualeguaychú residents.
Joint monitoring of the river should be the starting point for creating a Mercosur environmental agency to deal with shared environmental issues in the bloc, like the Guaraní aquifer that lies beneath all four member countries, Merke said.
An initiative that would allow the establishment of environmental monitoring mechanisms at regional level will be introduced into the Mercosur Parliament by Argentine lawmaker Fernando Iglesias of the centre-left Civic Coalition.
According to Merke, this is a necessary, although unpalatable, step, not just for Uruguay but for Argentina as well. 'The pulp mills in Argentina are older and dirtier than the Orion plant,' he said.
He also said the high level of pollution in the Matanza-Riachuelo river basin that flows through Buenos Aires into the Rio de la Plata proves that Argentina finds it difficult to meet high environmental quality standards in its own rivers.
© Inter Press Service (2010) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service