Senators are calling for urgent reform of the water code in Chile to prioritise human and agricultural use following a serious drought. One hundred and eight areas have been declared under a state of emergency and ten more are zones of agrilcultural catastrophe.

Senator Guido Girardi , from the Partido Por la Democracia has drawn up a law for the nationalisation of water supplies and on Monday many legislators spoke in support of the change.

The current drought threatens to spread beyond the current zone, further threatening dwindling water resources and pushing up food prices.

“The lack of water, exacerbated by an increasing global population means it is an increasingly scare resource in high demand. This will be continue to be a big problem in the future,” warned Giradi yesterday in a press release.

“Water must be a human right, not a commodity,” he added, in reference to the private companies who own water.

Secretary General of the Access to Water, Land and Environmental Protection Movement (Modatima) also emphasised the need for the state to guarantee access to water supplies;

“It is fundamental to position water as a fundamental and inalienable human right,” he said.

He added that groups making large profits from the water business were guilty of “committing crimes against humanity.”

The government responded by announcing the start of construction of four new planned reservoirs and says it will build 11 more over the next 10 years, increasing state water storage capacity by 50%.

The next zones facing the biggest risk from drought are the central northern regions of Coquimbo and Valparaíso.

After eight days of mobilization and 800 kilometres travelled, close to 1,000 people have converged in Lima as part of the National March for Water.

The protesters, demanding the preservation of water resources in the region of Cajamarca, are also calling for the establishment of a compensation fund to address the effects of mining in the area.

Among those who joined the march are residents from Cajamarca, Trujillo, and Piura. They are scheduled to meet in Lima with union leaders and social organizations such as the General Confederation of Workers of Peru (CGTP).

The various groups participating will develop a joint agenda of demands to be presented to the Peruvian government, specifically identifying problematic mining projects such as the Conga in the northeastern region of Cajamarca.

“We hope the government understands that the claim of Cajamarca is fair and that they should not continue to destroy the headwaters of the river with toxic mining,” said Marco Arana, a former priest and leader of the movement, in an interview with EFE.

The Conga mining project, developed by US company Newmont and Peruvian Buenaventura, has an investment of US$4.8bn covering four lakes for copper and gold extraction. The gold project, currently suspended following an 11-day strike that took place last November in Cajamarca, will tentatively resume following an agreement between the government, protesters, and workers’ unions.

Each week I am going to bring you a fact which will help to lay out Argentina’s big environmental issues, and also what you can do to improve the situation…

Fact #01: Wasted Water

It is calculated that each person on the planet needs between 20 and 50 litres of water per day, for drinking, food and hygiene. But in the sprawling cities of the world, around 250 litres of water is used per person, per day. This figure is high, but pales in comparison to the Buenos Aires statistic: according to Fundación Ciudad, each person uses a shocking 630 litres of water per day, more than double the average for European cities.

The reason for this huge level of water consumption can largely be blamed on three things:

• Public behaviour
• Lack of maintainance of installations
• Problems in the water network

Ok, so you probably can’t do much about the last one, but the first two leave room for improvement on a public level…

Dripping water tap (Photo: Randy Robertson)

Some ideas:

• Stop dripping taps! (a dripping tap can leak four litres per hour, which totals 35,000 litres a year)
• Fix a toilet that is leaking (it can waste 80 litres per hour)
• Don’t leave taps running uselessly: Use a plug when washing up (60 litres can be lost in the 15 minutes it takes to wash the dishes, and a plug will cost you around $2 a most ferreterias); and turn the tap off when brushing your teeth (three litres can be lost in a minute)
• Fill your washing machine before using it - each cycle uses some 100 litres of water
• Don’t use a hose to wash your car - it takes on average 500 litres of water. Go back to the old school bucket and sponge technique!
• Talk to your portero about how the pavement is cleaned - each ‘wash down’ uses an average of 250 litres of water. A new bill passed in Buenos Aires in January which will eventually limit porteros using water to clean the pavement to just three days a week - Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, with the eventual idea of phasing out the use of water altogether.

Green extreme: Speak up! Tell people off if you see them let their dogs crap on the pavements and not clean it up: if they clean up after their pooping pups, your building porter will have less of a reason to ‘wash’ the pavements down. Same goes for people who throw litter in the streets - I always find calling the cheeky yet innocent sounding ‘Señor/a, se le cayo algo‘ works quite well. Expect baffled expressions and/or angry glares in response. If you want to go further, pick up what they just dropped, chase after them and offer it back to them, along with your ‘innocent’ phrase. Public humiliation guaranteed. Public spaces belong to us and as a result we should all respect and care for them - if we all treated them like we do for our own homes, there would be no need to ‘wash’ the pavements each morning.

Let me know how it goes - and by all means share your comments and suggestions below! Or write to me at kristie@ambientateargentina.com

The Water and Sanitation Committees of Nicaragua (CAPS) protested against the privatization of drinking water.

President for the National Assembly of Nicaragua René Núñez, denied the government had intentions to privatize drinking water. Meanwhile, the Nicaraguan vice-president Jaime Morales Carazo and the second vice-president of the parliament, Carlos García Bonilla, rejected the allegations.

Morales pointed out that the NicaraguanWater and Sewage Company (Encal) must abide by the General Law of National Waters. In its fourth article it states that the water is a Nicaraguan patrimony and the national state should promote its conservation and sustainable use.

Social organizations such as the Defense of the Consumer Network have announced protests against the measure to ensure that the intentions of it being implemented are discouraged.

Story courtesy of Agencia Púlsar, the news agency of AMARC-ALC

The British flag and a bird fly over the Malvinas (Photo: eddybox43)

This April marks the 29th anniversary of the Falklands War (known as the Malvinas War in Argentina), which claimed the lives of 650 Argentines and 258 British soldiers. But beyond the battle is a territorial dispute that has raged for 178 years and shows no sign of disappearing. With lucrative fishing licenses, oil prospects, Antarctic ambitions, and a military base with 2,500 troops said to be defending a population of the same size, is the UK actually afraid of Argentine aggression or is it afraid of compromising on such a strategic and valuable holding?

“Two bald men fighting over a comb,” said Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges of the war between the UK and Argentina over the Falklands Islands. It’s a metaphor that became branded to what many believe to have been a senseless war between two deeply unpopular governments, both looking to win points at home, over a cluster of islands in the remote South Atlantic. UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s popularity was plummeting thanks to a series of neoliberal domestic policies, and with 30,000 disappearances to its name the Argentine military junta and its iron-fisted rule was losing any legitimacy it once had.

War was the perfect way for both countries to ratchet up nationalism and divert attention from unrest at home. Argentina sent its out-matched army to invade the islands in April 1982 and retreated ten weeks later with a new appreciation for Her Majesty’s Armed Forces, one of the most equipped in the world. End of story.

Yet the pointlessness of the actual war overshadows the true conflict. Beyond nationalist pride, what is the real fuss over these frigid islands? Upon closer look at what control of the Falklands actually means for the British today – between the sale of fishing licenses, oil exploitation, increased militarization, and access to the Antarctic – it turns out that the measly comb so many have mocked is made out of solid gold.

History and International Law

The conflict over the Falklands stretches far beyond the war in 1982 and involves an endless list of UN resolutions (issued and ignored), sovereignty claims, bilateral talks and unilateral actions.

Britain successfully colonized the islands in 1833, 26 years after two unsuccessful attempts to capture Argentina’s capital, Buenos Aires. At the time, a tiny gaucho population under the authority of Argentine colonel, Jose Maria Pinedo, inhabited the islands. The colonel was asked to remove the Argentine flag, replace it for a British one, and get lost. Without the numbers to mount any defense, he obeyed, and the islands have been under British control ever since.

Control of islands nearly 13,000km from the shores of the UK and 500km off the coast of Argentina didn’t rustle many international feathers until the 1950s and 60s, when decolonization movements around the world gave impetus to milestone UN resolutions like 1514 - passed in 1960 - that supported independence movements of colonized countries and peoples. The General Assembly then passed Resolution 2065 in 1965, which specifically acknowledged the conflict over the islands and called upon both sides to “proceed without delay” in negotiations and to refrain from taking unilateral decisions or actions. The resolution goes on to say that it “was prompted by the cherished aim of bringing an end everywhere to colonialism in all of its forms, one of which covers the case of the Falkland Islands.”

It was the first of 11 UN resolutions regarding the conflict, eight of them issued after the 1982 war and the most recent passed in 2010 by the UN Special Committee on Decolonization. Each one restates the previous, with the acknowledgement of a colonial situation and a request for a peaceful and negotiated settlement of the dispute. Yet despite Argentina’s continued pleas for international law to be respected, they have done little to change the present situation of the islands.

Status Quo: Profit and Expansion

Fishing Boats (Photo: Luciano Osorio)

By ignoring Argentina and the international community and evading serious negotiations, the UK has been able to sustain a position of occupation and unilateral action throughout the years. The status quo has been good to Britain. For example, it has enjoyed over three decades of exclusive rights to the sale of fishing licenses in perhaps the richest waters in the world, as reported by the Food and Agricultural Organisation. When it unilaterally established maritime jurisdiction over the 200 nautical miles surrounding the islands in 1986, and set up the Falklands Islands Fishing Ordinance, it began selling fishing licenses to countries like Poland, Japan, and South Korea. According to a 1997 report in the ‘Maritime Briefing’ on the Falklands, after the ordinance was established, “license fees subsequently brought in several million pounds per year,” with the harvest of squid alone yielding £20.6m in 1992.

Mediated negotiations have historically been shut down due to Britain’s refusal to discuss the issue of “sovereignty”. In fact, the only moment the UK entertained bilateral negotiations was in the 1990s, when Argentina’s neoliberal economic policies lifted restrictions on British imports. The countries signed a Joint Declaration and agreed to “umbrella sovereignty”, whereby no action taken by either government would be interpreted as supporting or rejecting the other’s claim of sovereignty. It was a passive and confounded agreement mostly designed to ease Argentine concerns rather than those of the British.

The Argentine government’s willingness to go along with it was referred to as its “policy of seduction”. Yet it was just unclear who was seducing whom. Though there were joint scientific studies of fish stock, the sale of licenses remained exclusively British. Though the UK allowed families of Argentine soldiers killed during the war to visit the islands, it unilaterally claimed maritime jurisdiction around the South Georgia and South Sandwich islands. And while both countries set up a joint commission in to oversee oil exploration in disputed waters, Britain continued its independent sale of numerous oil licenses.

Oil, Water and the Antarctic

Oil Platform (Photo: Stacy Lynn Baum)

As fish supplies dwindle, securing oil and fresh water reserves has become the main strategic role of the Falklands for Britain. Though scientists had long been suspected there were large oil reserves around the islands, exploration has only begun in the past few years. In February of 2010, British Desire Petroleum began drilling 100km from the capital of the Falklands, Port Stanley, for what may be 200 million barrels of oil worth an estimated £17bn. By May, British Rockhopper Exploration joined the frenzy, along with a host of other companies that have won large contracts for oilrig and equipment services.

Great oil and gas reserves also lie underneath the Antarctic, a continent Britain has also set its sights on. Thanks to its control of the Falklands, it has claimed over 660,000 square miles of Antarctic territory. In May of 2009, before the deadline for countries to make submissions to the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf, it submitted an additional claim of 386,000 miles of ocean off of its Antarctic holding. Many, including Greenpeace and the World Wildlife Fund, condemned the UK in what is seen as an environmentally dangerous move to secure access to oil, water and other natural resources.

The Antarctic is also the continent that holds 70% of the world’s fresh water reserves, a resource becoming scarcer and more valuable each year. The Antarctic Treaty signed in 1959 has thus far protected the continent’s environment from resource extraction and military activity. However, it neither affirms nor denies territorial claims currently held by seven countries. As access to fresh water becomes more critical, the treaty may become another ideal purported on paper but trampled in practice.

Military Manoeuvres

F3 Tornado of the Quick Reaction Alert Force based at Mount Pleasant Complex (MPC) in the Falkland Islands at dusk. (Photo: Harland Quarrington)

One of the most significant outcomes of the Falklands War was Britain’s construction of the Royal Air Force base called Mount Pleasant, established in 1985. It is complete with four Eurofighter Typhoon jets, transport aircrafts, helicopters, silos for large weapons storage, two runways capable of accommodating heavy aircraft, and last year the Navy deployed attack submarine HMS Sceptre to the area. Currently, more than 2,500 Army, Navy and RAF servicemen and personnel are stationed there.

Though by its own admission the likelihood of an Argentine military attack is slim to none, the military conducts regular exercises simulating invasion that involve heavy artillery fire upon targets off the coast. In October of last year, the base also conducted a series of missile tests that Britain called “routine”. Argentina, backed by Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay, called the exercises and tests acts of aggression and lodged a formal complaint to the UN, stating: “A permanent member of the UN Security Council is behaving like something from the colonial past.”

Vice-president of the World Peace Council, Rina Bertaccini, has studied foreign military bases and activity in Latin America for over 30 years. To her, Britain’s military objective is clear: “To maintain military bases, control over maritime routes, and control over the natural assets of the region that they prey on at will.”

Additionally, in March 2010, 150 troops from the 1st Battalion of the Yorkshire Regiment arrived at Mount Pleasant to begin training for deployment to Afghanistan to join the other 9,500 British troops stationed there as part of NATO’s continued war. It is a reality that raises questions as to the extent the islands are being used, or could be used, for NATO purposes. Some, like Bertaccini, believe that the difference between the British base and a NATO base is a mere “subtlety”.

“What’s certain,” says Bertaccini, “is that you cannot install a military base with 2,500 troops to defend 2,500 inhabitants, it doesn’t make sense.”

Self-determination

But it is precisely the desires of those 2,500 inhabitants that the UK has used to justify its sovereign claim over the islands. In poll after poll, the people living on the Falklands declare their nationality as British and wish to remain under British authority. Invoking the UN Charter’s principle of self-determination, Britain has stated “there can be no negotiations on sovereignty of the Falkland Islands unless and until such time as the Falkland Islanders so wish.”

But applying the principal of “self-determination” becomes tricky when the population is made up of the same colonizing force that seized the islands. Argentine Minister of Foreign Affairs Rafael Bielsa said before the UN Committee on Decolonization in 2004: “Sustaining the idea the inhabitants of the islands have a right to self-determination would create a territorial dispute of which the country that has implanted them is part of. Meaning, the colonial power would confirm its own usurpation and implicate itself.” In a 2006 address to the same committee, former Minister of Foreign Affairs Jorge Taina said that the inhabitants are a “British population transplanted with the animus to establish a colony.”

While the assertion that the population of the Falklands is “implanted” is strong, census data collected by Britain reveals that it is largely true. In a 2006 report, Argentine congress member Daniel Oscar Gallo and a team of researchers presented a document that revealed that not only are military personnel often included in the count of 2,500 civilians living on the islands, but that just 40% of the population has lived on the islands for more than ten years, and only 42% of the population was born on the island.

Using UK census data, the document claims that “it is impossible to claim the application of principle of self-determination when in an analysis of the demographic of a period of ten years between two censuses, it turns out that more than 57% of the inhabitants over the age of ten have been implanted.”

Future of the Falklands

Malvinas War Monument from Ushaia (Photo: Esteban)

On this anniversary of the Falklands War, Argentines and Britons alike will mourn the death of soldiers and loved ones sent to battle what was ultimately a senseless war. To truly honour them along with the veterans who have suffered since, we would do well to fully understand the roots of this conflict, why the islands are so strategic and what the future may hold.

At a recent press conference discussing oil scarcity and new exploration, US president Barack Obama assured the North American people that the US government is working with partner nations and industry, and “taking steps to explore potential gas and oil resources off the mid- and south-Atlantic”. It is a statement as vague as it is alarming, as oil exploration and extraction moves forward in the Falklands and the region becomes more and more strategic to global superpowers.

Argentina may be able to diplomatically muscle its way toward negotiations as it has had consistent regional support from Mercosur, Unasur, and the Rio Group. But understanding what Britain stands to lose if it truly engaged in a discussion over Falklands makes it clear why the cries of a far inferior military power like Argentina go ignored. For now and as before, with so much at stake economically and strategically, might will be making right.

Francesca Fiorentini is a freelance journalist based in Buenos Aires. She is also an editor of Left Turn magazine and a regular contributor to WarTimes.org.

About 200 residents of Temacapulín, Mexico, and various social organizations took over the Zapotillo dam. They want the stoping of construction to be “definite and indefinite”.

The protesters were supported by members of the Mexican Movement of People Affected by Dams and in Defense of Rivers (MAPD) from various states.

They claim that local authorities and the company do not respect the results of the referendum conducted by the State Water Commission (CEA).

Furthermore, they ignored Jalisco judge, Martha Leticia Muro Arellano’s, ruling to suspend the work.

The lawyer for the victims, Guadalupe Espinosa, recalled that there is the Human Rights Commission recommendation for violations of individual rights.

She also noted that the work does not have an Environmental Impact Statement, or land use permits.

Temacapulín residents have opposed the project for the last 5 years since building the damn would put their town and two other sites under water.

MAPDER activist, Marco Von Borstel, stressed that the dam is illegal and illegitimate.

He considered it unnecessary because the cities of Guadalajara (Jalisco) and Leon (Guanajuato) can improve there water use - 40% of water in these cities is wasted through leakage of pipes in poor condition.

The activist called for international solidarity and for them to pay extra attention to the growing police presence in the vicinity of the outlet.

The embankment that the government aims to build would provide water to the city of León, Guanajuato.

Story courtesy of Agencia Púlsar, the news agency of AMARC-ALC

After 12 hours of debate, Argentina’s Chamber of Deputies approved a law that would limit mining and oil drilling activity in the country’s Andean ice fields on Thursday morning. The legislation’s provisions are similar to a glacier protection law that President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner controversially vetoed in 2008.

While the Chamber of Deputies still has to debate and vote on specific details of the bill, the law is expected to move to the Senate for a final vote in August. Though the Senate vote will be close, Kirchner said she will approve whatever final version of the bill is passed.

Approved 129-86, the law declares all of Argentina’s glaciers to be “strategic reserves of water resources” and “public property”.

It bans “mining and oil extraction” in the glaciers’ watersheds, and places strict restrictions on industrial activity in surrounding lands, expanding the definition of a peri-glacial area. It also establishes a system to assess the environmental impact of commercial projects and outlines specific penalties for polluters.

“The bill protects glaciers and peri-glacial areas from any industry be it mining or fuels, or others that could affect the strategic drinking water resource,” said Alejandro De Miranda, a spokesman for opposition Deputy Miguel Bonasso, who led the bill.

Glacial watersheds provide Argentina with 70% of its “safe” drinking water. Industrial contamination and glacial retreat led the government to to announce “water” as one of the country’s five most pressing environmental issues in 2009, along with climate change, waste, deforestation, and conservation of protected areas.

During the debate, Bonasso strongly criticised the practices of Canadian mining company Barrick Gold, which he said uses toxic chemicals like cyanide and has dubious connections with the San Juan province government.

“We don’t want the endangered Andes mountains to be dedicated to gold mining with cyanide…for the benefit of a few people’s pockets,” Bonasso said. “We want there to be water for all Argentines.”

This version of the bill was a recent combination of conflicting proposals by Bonasso and the pro-Kirchner senator Daniel Filmus.

Bonasso had actually led the pro-Kirchner faction until the president vetoed the 2008 version of the law, causing him to defect in protest. While Kirchner cited the legislation’s potentially deleterious effects on economic activity in the effected regions at the time, environmental activists charged the president with being in the pocket of Barrick Gold.

Palacio de aguas corrientes (Photo: Beatrice Murch)

This may have happened to you too. You’re on a bus on Avenida Córdoba, hardly noticing anything about your surroundings beyond the fellow passengers crammed up against you on all sides and perhaps trying to catch a glimpse of your watch while beginning to gnash your teeth at the traffic gridlock. Then, all of a sudden your full attention is grasped by a resplendent block-long palace of a building. It is absolutely stunning, the kind of architecture that proves Buenos Aires worthy of its moniker as the Paris of South America. But what is it? Being the savvy traveller that you are you’re familiar with the great monuments of the city; it certainly wasn’t the Casa Rosada, it wasn’t the Congress building, nor Teatro Colón nor any of the grand cathedrals. It was an old disused sanitation plant.

El Palacio de Aguas Corrientes (Palace of Running Waters) is one of the most magnificent buildings in Buenos Aires, it is also cloaked in mystery. With a desire to sort fact from fiction, I decided to attend one of the free tours given by the Museum of Water and Sanitation, situated on the first floor of the Palacio. My tour guide, Celina Beatriz Noya, set the record straight on some of the more outlandish tales as well as offering the concession that foreigners confused about the building’s identity be pardoned on account of many porteños being equally mistaken.

Facade of the Palacio de aguas corrientes (Photo: Beatrice Murch)

A common misconception is that the palace was originally built to be the main government building instead of the Casa Rosada. Plans for the building were borne out of the dire need to improve sanitation in the rapidly growing metropolis after it had suffered severe yellow fever outbreaks in the 1870s. The government expressly stated that the building should have a “striking appearance” in order to provoke respect for the importance of the work being performed inside.

Another falsity concerning the building’s identity is that it was created to be the palace of an Arab sheik – total fabrication. This story was probably invented as an explanation for the building’s lavish ornamentation; but again, the palace’s arresting adornment was a priority for the government. They intended it to be an imposing symbol of the massive public works and societal progress that were being undertaken in that era.

This spirit of progress was carried forth with a constant focus on European societies as models, and in relation to this another long-lasting rumour was born: that the Palacio is an exact replica of a building in Europe. It is not. However, it was constructed according to European design, by Europeans and with European materials. The construction was carried out by the Swedish engineer Carlos A. B. Nystromer, the Norwegian architect Olaf Boye and the British company Bateman, Parsons and Bateman.

Boye’s design consists of eclectic architectural elements but is formally considered French Second Empire style: with its mansard-roofed towers, columns and ornate cornices. The structure is comprised of over 300,000 terracotta pieces of varying shapes, sizes and colours, each produced in and shipped from England and then assembled in Buenos Aires. Many of the terracotta pieces, especially those framing the windows and doors of the building, were glazed with a deep-brown enamel and appear almost wooden. One of the only design choices left to Argentine hands was the painting of the provincial coats of arms which are set just below the upper cornice. The British were unsure of the proper colouring.

The columns that line the first level are embellished with inlaid mosaics of overflowing bowls of fruit and fantastical animals. The British designers had never actually visited Buenos Aires and were apparently expecting tropical environs; instead, they were met with the “porteño melancholy”, as Noya put it.

Somewhere along the line Olaf Boye’s death got sucked into the vortex of rumours surrounding the Palacio. One tall-tale has it that he drowned himself in one of the giant water storage tanks because he felt that the greatness of his work had not been sufficiently acknowledged. Another story maintains that he jumped off the building’s roof because he himself was unsatisfied with the finished product. As if that weren’t enough, one of Argentina’s best known writers, celebrated journalist and author Tomás Eloy Martínez, in his novel ‘El Cantor de Tango’, states that Boye died of a heart attack suffered during a game of chess that he was playing while taking a break from drawing the Palacio de Aguas blueprints. “Myths upon myths,” Noya maintains.

The toilet museum in the Palacio de aguas corrientes (Photo: Beatrice Murch)

But it’s not just Boye’s death that haunts the Palacio. There are other rumoured deaths associated with the innards of the building, the giant water tanks. Nystromer designed what was a massive feat of engineering at the time: an interior framework of columns supporting 12 giant metal tanks capable of storing 72 tonnes of drinking water. One urban legend claims that a pair of disturbed lovers committed a joint suicide by drowning themselves in one of the tanks. Another, this one also promulgated by Eloy Martínez in ‘El Cantor de Tango’, tells of a high profile murder case in which the corpse of a beautiful young girl from a powerful aristocratic family shows up amongst the tanks of the Palacio. Noya told me that while Eloy Martínez did in fact conduct research for his novel at the Palacio’s library, he later admitted to the staff that the story of the murdered girl was a work of his imagination.

Today, along with the Museum of Water and Sanitation, the Palacio de Aguas Corrientes also houses a library and the commercial and administrative offices of its current owners, the state-run corporation AySA (Aguas y Saneamientos Argentinos). The museum exhibits the original plans for the building, documents and photographs of the development of the city’s sanitation system, samples of the enamelled terracotta pieces and a display of the evolution of early faucets and toilets.

Apparently, the rumours surrounding the Palacio gained traction due to the building being closed to the public for most of its life under the old sanitation department, Obras Sanitarias de la Nación. However, AySA has opened the doors of this monumental edifice to the public with the hope that it will gain appreciation for its beauty and contribution to the development of the city, and not remain so shrouded in mystery and rumour.

Tours of the Museum of Water and Sanitation in the Palacio de Aguas Corrientes are given every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 11am. The tours are free and don’t require reservations in advance. Enter the building at Riobamba 750 and proceed to the first floor.

In celebration of Argentina’s bicentenary The Palacio de Aguas Corrientes will be open for extended hours and will host a series of special events from the 15th to 28th May. Opening hours will be from 10am to 8pm, every day of the week. The Museum of Water and Sanitation will be hosting photo exhibitions, showing a film cycle and offering enhanced tours which will visit normally closed areas of the building, such as the water tanks. The tours will run daily at 11.30am, 3.30pm and 5.30pm. No reservations needed.

As some of the bicentenary plans are still being finalised please check the AySA site at: www.aysa.com.ar

Photos by Emily Anne Epstein

‘Even getting the bus is fun in Tigre’, I thought to myself as we hopped aboard the Collectiva Interisleña. This isn’t just because, essentially, all the roads are waterways and all the cars are boats in the delta, but also because of the special atmosphere.

Taking in the bizarre world of this watery community passing by outside the window: ‘supermarket boats’ trundling down the labyrinthine tributaries, several large derelict vessels abandoned in the reeds and rows of seemingly normal houses with their gardens and space for a car (boat here) out front, it’s hard to believe how such a functional society had grown in such unusual circumstances.

Although Delta~Unplugged might, to some, sound like the name of a big machine-like tour company, churning out daytrips for the masses, nothing could be further from the truth. Arriving at the home of our hosts for the day, Argentine Ana Laura Espinosa and Swiss-German Ralph Meier, the warm reception of hugs and kisses, not to mention a near-flattening welcome from Ra and Morro, their Belgian Shepard and American Labrador (who more resemble friendly black Shetland ponies than dogs), tells you that the day’s experience is going to be a hugely friendly and personal one.

We were quickly taken on a tour of Ana and Ralph’s wonderful life. Having built the cabin they live in and growing an array of fruit and vegetables in the garden, you see why an American film crew came to make a documentary about green tourism there last year. Showing off their impressive guest rooms, Ana revealed the Delta~Unplugged ethic: “It’s very laid back, this isn’t a hotel, you’re not guests, you’re part of our home – if you want a beer or some food, go and grab it, if you want to do something, do it. Feel at home.”

Photos by Emily Anne Epstein

Hungry from the early start and slightly saliva-legged from Ra and Morro’s unwavering love, we sat down for breakfast under a festooned canopy. Home-made bread was accompanied by local jams, marmalade, dulce de leche and we were soon off to the lancha to begin our voyage.

We set off from the Arroyo Espera (their address – ‘Waiting Stream’ so-called because it was the place where bigger boats used to have to wait for the tide to come in), winding our way through the Delta on our way to the Río Paraná de las Palmas and beyond. En route, Ana filled us in on the history of the Delta.

A hundred years ago the area had been home to a booming fruit production trade and 20,000 residents, including former president Domingo Sarmiento. An influx of salt water in the 1950s severely tarnished the land’s ability to grow fruit and, consequently, the population has sunk to just 5,000.

Today 90% of the homes in the delta are owned by tourists or weekenders and the Tres Bocas region has become synonymous with an artificial tourist experience: concrete, flashy speedboats and overpricing. This is the sort of experience that Delta~Unplugged tries to avoid, as Ana tells me: “Boat trips to Tres Bocas and $50 milanesas are what everyone else is selling but that is not what we want to sell. We want to show people the most beautiful parts in the delta’s segunda sección and treat them to top quality home-made food without ripping them off.”

Buenos Aires seemed a million miles away as we crossed the intermittent traffic of the Paraná de las Palmas, dodging a metal freighter and reaching blissful isolation. For a large part of the afternoon, our sole neighbours were woodpeckers and carapindas as we drifted through serene wildlife.

Photos by Emily Anne Epstein

Stopping for lunch at a secluded spot, Ralph erected an awning to guard against the scorching heat of the sun. An incredible smorgasbord of delicacies was served up on the boat: empanadas, pâté, chicken salad, vegetables, potato rosti and even some delectable tenderloin slices cooked up by Ralph on a tiny hob at the back of the boat. Ralph, a former chef, insists on only using top quality produce for the excursions.

At some point in the afternoon, a few beers in the system, drifting through the sub-tropical, jungle-esque tributaries of the delta in sweltering heat to the sound of Ralph’s yodelling and Los Chalcheros CDs blurting out of the boat, it dawned quite how surreally brilliant the trip was. A sort of hazy calm lingered in the warm air as siesta time settled in for some. Locals say the abundance of willow trees in the delta is what generates this inclination to relax to the point of laziness there.

We passed quaint beaches adorned with straw umbrellas on the Paraná de las Palmas heading for the sole loo break of the day. The trees were sprouting delicate red ceibos, the national flower of Argentina. Encountering more of these derelict, pseudo-shipwrecks, Ana told us that they had all been abandoned in the wake of the most recent financial crisis and were now being inhabited by squatters – a sort of ‘barca tomada’ if you like.

Photos by Emily Anne Epstein

Back at the cabin, and feeling sunned, we were treated to home-made ice cream, tea and cake as we looked over Ana and Ralph’s photos of their home before they had started work on it and, such was our rapport by this stage in the day, even their wedding photos too! This is what makes the day with Delta~Unplugged so special – the incredibly personal and friendly experience you have, as fellow daytrippers Corina Steinmann and Annika Helmaers remarked: “[Ana and Ralph] show so much emotion, heart and energy – this is the only way to experience Tigre.”

I can’t recommend Delta~Unplugged enough. Ana and Ralph are superb in their ‘green’ way of presenting the most special parts of the delta, their DIY approach to providing a decadently delicious banquet and in their remarkably welcoming hospitality. All this good onda doubtless emanates from the pleasure they take in their lifestyle, as Ralph said: “We do the trips because we love doing them. Even if we had all the money in the world, we would still be doing this everyday. We love having people along with us.”