Environmental Racism And Justice

For many centuries, pollution of the river basin Matanza-Riachuelo has been taking place. Fortunately, the National Supreme Court is coming up with new rulings, which will ensure that the Matanza-Riachuelo is clean. The river is highly placed in the environmental law, which exists in Latin America’s history. There is a need to find out if the pollution of the river basin Matanza-Riachuelo is due to environmental racism. Pollution has affected the local population to the point whereby, they have taken the matter to court. The latter has summoned the companies, which have been accused of polluting the river basin (Hoshaw, 2008). In turn, a public hearing has been summoned, as well as a management plan implemented, and this is according to the government. It is estimated that the number of people who are affected by the river basin’s pollution is 3.5 million. These people are described as being low income earners, and are extremely vulnerable. It seems that the court will help solve the impending problem at hand, but without the people’s contribution. The Argentine legal systems are making sure that the issue is urgently solved. It seems that the Argentine people are not happy with the matter of pollution, and this is the reason why they are denouncing it.

During the 19th century, the pollution of the Matanza-Riachuelo began, but unfortunately the matter has become extremely critical, and even dangerous. A catastrophe that will affect people’s health is bound to occur and this is according to the General of the Nation Auditor. Also, the matter cannot be governed, as there are no policies of a public nature, which exist. Three jurisdictions have the mandate of taking care of this matter, thus the reasons why complications have arisen. The population is at risk of suffering greatly, due to the consequences of the Matanza-Riachuelo river basin (Hoshaw, 2008). The environment has not been spared either, as it is degrading fast and its improvement is being hampered. Society will benefit if the river basin is well taken care of. The judges of this court issue, further want to make sure that a healthy environment exists. The government has the responsibility of ensuring that a constitutional mandate exists concerning this matter.

All the companies, which have been implicated in this matter, must provide information concerning the contents in the river and what they have dumped. They should make available their insurance, as well as the treatment used to treat the pollution in accordance to the countries law on the environment. In environmental racism, often decision making opportunities are not offered to communities who are affected by pollution (Hoshaw, 2008). In the case of pollution of the river basin at Matanza-Riachuelo, environmental racism occurred. This is because the local community was not given an opportunity or audience to air their views concerning the matter. There are certain factors, which have been left out, and they need to be addressed. For example, it is not known whether the people affected by the effects of population were compensated. Also, some of the medical conditions, which were caused by pollution, are not known. The information would have contributed greatly to this article (Hoshaw, 2008). In conclusion, the justice system should have made sure that the local community was involved in the matter. This is because they were the ones who were greatly affected by the pollution. Countries should come up with laws, which can effectively deal with pollution matters, to avoid problems that took place in Argentina.

References

Hoshaw, Lindsey. (2008). Troubled water: The Matanza-Riachuelo river basin. The Argentina Independent. Retrieved from HYPERLINK “http://www.argentinaindependent.com/socialissues/environment/troubled-waters-the-matanza-riachuelo-river-basin-/” http://www.argentinaindependent.com/socialissues/environment/troubled-waters-the-matanza-riachuelo-river-basin-/