By Maria Perez Alsina | Coordinator of the Environmental Area
Mapping environmetal conflicts
In the last months we have been working in the mapping of socio-environmental conflicts on agrochemicals. Our objective is to identify and make visible the problems suffered by numerous communities from different points of the province of Córdoba with respect to the indiscriminate use and application of pesticides, as their human rights to life, health and a healthy environment are affected.
To achieve this, we are going to develop an open and public virtual platform (map) in which conflicts will be described in detail, in order to serve as a tool for information, education and awareness about the problem, as well as a resource to empower the affected communities to defend their right to health and a healthy environment.
Currently, we are at the stage of information gathering and systematization focusing on 15 communities in a situation of vulnerability: Malvinas Argentinas, Ituzaingo neighborhood, Canals, Chico Dike, Zipline Colony, Alta Gracia, Carmen skirt, Coronel Moldes, Marcos Juarez, Montecristo, San Francisco, Huinca Renanco, Morrison, Pozo del Molle, Monte Maiz.
In the next stage we will get in touch with some of the affected communities to learn more about their fight for their rights and hear their own experiences about the health and environmental problems they are dealing with.
Discussion of a future national law
In Argentina, the government wants to promote a national law to regulate the application of agrochemicals. Therefore, the Ministries of Agroindustry and Environment, together with other ministries and state agencies, prepared a "Report on Good Practices in the Field of Phytosanitary Applications", which was submitted to public consultation for a period of one month.
From FUNDEPS we developed considerations and critics to the report, among them:
a) the Working Group that elaborated the report is integrated in its majority by representatives of the land owners and farmers
b) there is no public health perspective, which must be included in the draft law
c) it does not take into account that sprays cannot be controlled (Why? Because as much as climatic conditions are taken into account, the chemical products that are used have persistence in the environment and are mobilized through water and air even after the application is made)
d) it does not contemplate the principles of prevention and precaution
e) it must be a law of minimum budgets, with the intervention of COFEMA
f) it does not contemplate a regime of infractions and sanctions, among others.
We will continue monitoring and monitoring policies aimed at a future national law, so that they are as participatory and protective as possible of the environment and health of all Argentines.
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