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Nabarralde | Nabarra Papers
Ecological
Disaster in Basque Rivers
Mila Parot Zubimendi.
Near midnight, a young couple at the Arga River emerges from
the shadows, flushed and laughing. It would be a romantic outing
but for the carnage at their feet. Fish still dying along the
bank from a 24-hours-old toxic waste dumping - another ecological
disaster in a Basque river threatened by continuos pollution.
Thousands
of fish have died in the rivers Arga, Nerbioi and Oria in less
than two weeks, the victims of toxic dumping by companies, and
the policies of two regional governments reluctant to tighten
control over pollution when pursuit of economic benefits is
their first goal.
It
is estimated that more than 100,000 species of trouts and barbels
died as a result of of toxic waste dumped into the Arga River
in the province of Nabarra
on June 26.
The
incident was reported by the environmental group Gurelur which
recovered more than 12,000 dead fish on the banks of the Arga
in the neighborhood of San Jorge in the city of Iruña.
A
couple of days before the disaster, the ecologist grassroot
group Eguzki had received several calls from concerned residents
who noticed the Arga had blackened passing through the town
of Galdakao.
The
Arga River has its source in the Pyrenees mountains, near Orreaga
(Roncesvalles). Its main tributaries are the Ulzama, the Arakil
and the Aragon. The Arga flows through the city of Iruña
past Gares (aka Puente de la Reina), Lizarra and into the Ebro
River.
Lining
its banks are medieval towns, ancient monasteries, castles,
cathedrals, parks and historic cities such as Iruña (180,000
inhabitants), capital of Nabarra, and of Euskal Herria. Iruña
was the site of a primitive Basque village and it was here that
the kingdom of Nabarra - the first and only Basque state that
ever existed - developed.
Unfortunately,
the Arga is very polluted. Each year, large amounts of pollutants
are dumped into the river from industrial, agricultural and
municipal sources threatening the health of Nabarra's people.
The
regional government of Nabarra has said it has plans for the
biological treatment of Iruña's wastewater. But environmentalist
believe the plan is unlikely to have a positive effect if companies
continue dumping waste into the river.
Lies,
lies, damn lies
On
July 3, a resident of the town of Basauri called the newspaper
Gara to report a waste dumping in the Nerbioi River in the province
of Bizkaia. The
phone caller told the daily that the Nerbioi had blackened and
that hundreds of dead fish had been detected.
The
Sidenor steel plant in Basauri is suspected of having dumped
the waste.
More
than two tons of trouts, barbels and carps were found dead near
a dam close to the Sidenor plant -- a "natural death" according
to the regional government.
The
government blames the biggest ecological disaster in the Nerbioi
on the river's low volume and the weather's high temperatures.
Gara
reported that the government explanation of the disaster has
a scientific basis within the context of the lack of a clean-up
plan for the Nerbioi. Industrial and municipal wastewater are
dumped daily into the river. Although few companies have adopted
clean-up systems, and industrial activity at the river mouth
has declined, contamination is worst when the temperature rises.
The
ecologist group Erreka-Ekologistak Martxan criticized the lack
of effective government measures against the companies that
dump their waste into the rivers.
On
the other hand, Eguzki holds that the companies that do the
dumping ought to do the cleaning. According to Eguzki, it's
cheaper for the companies to pay a summon for dumping waste
than to adopt a clean-up management system.
Before
this latest ecological disaster in the Nerbioi River, the regional
government of Baskongadak
(Araba, Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa) had begun to inject 18 million
liters of water into the river. But environmentalists believe
the damage is already too serious.
"The
same day they began to inject water, the river remained blackened,"
the head of Basauri's Civil Protection, Iñaki Rodriguez,
told Gara. "The river is dead in piscatory fauna, but we don't
know if it [the pollution] has affected the flora."
Death
in the Oria river
On
July 5, the General Assembly of the province of Gipuzkoa
recognized that a toxic waste dumping by one of the companies
in the town of Andoain had killed thousands of fish in the Oria
river.
The
incident had been reported by the ecologist group Eguzki embarrasing
the government who rushed to downplay it saying this latest
dumping would have no long-term consequences "because the river
regenerates quickly since it flows and the water that comes
is clean."
According
to Eguzki, around 4,000 fish died.
The
waste was dumped into a collector of pluvial waters that discharges
into the Oria. At this writing it was not known yet which company
was responsible for the dumping and the pollutant that caused
the disaster.
The
Oria, one of the principal rivers of Baskongadak, has its source
in the mountains of Aitzgorri in Gipuzkoa.
Its main tributaries include Albiztur, Araxes, Berastegi, Leitzaran,
and Estanda. The Oria runs past Tolosa and Andoain and into
the Atlantic.
Industrial
and municipal wastewater from Beasain, Ordizia, Ormaiztegi and
Lazkao dumped into the river, as well as metal from the Troya
mine dumped into the Estanda tributary since 1995, has caused
the destruction of the piscatory fauna in many sections of the
river.
The
governments, both past and present, have always shown a bias
in favor of corporations, especially the foreign multinationals.
Tax incentives and lax standards, if any, for protecting the
environment, are clear examples. The people from the communities
who are actively denouncing pollution by companies on their
lands and resources are now demanding that the governments should,
for once, show a bias in favor of its own citizens.
July 1999
Mila
Parot is a law student and free-lance writer. She's currently
living in Miarritze.
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