A paper mill built along the border between Argentina and Uruguay, creating pollution and environmental damage for over ten years, has reopened the rift between the two countries.
On 27 September 2013, in a interview given to Bloomberg, Uruguay’s President José Mujica announced plans to allow to an increase in cellulose production at the pulp plant owned by Finnish multinational UPM (formerly Botnia), if the company meets stricter environmental requirements.
In 2002, the Uruguayan government authorised the construction by two European companies (ENCE of Spain and Botnia of Finland) of industrial plants for cellulose production in the Uruguayan city of Fray Bentos, just across the river from the Argentine city of Gualeguaychú.
In Gualeguaychú, in the province Entre Ríos, linked to Fray Bentos by the General Libertador San Martín Bridge, citizens reacted instantly, forming an environmental group, Asamblea Ciudadana Ambiental, to stop the installation of the paper mills.
The citizens’ assembly, which succeeded in securing the relocation of the Spanish plant, is well remembered for its Abrazos al Rio Uruguay (Embrace of the Uruguay River) marches and its actions that closed the bridge to traffic and placed a heavy strain on relations between the two countries.
The Argentinian activists continue to argue that the waste spilled into the river and the industrial emissions produced by the UPM plant are causing health-threatening environmental pollution and affecting the tourism sector in Gualeguaychú, which is famed for hosting Argentina’s biggest carnival.
The government of Argentine president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner has reacted to Mujica’s decision with a threat to take the matter to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, arguing that Uruguay is violating the 1961 Boundary Treaty and the 1975 Statute on the River Uruguay, which regulates the river’s binational management through the Uruguay River Administrative Committee (CARU).
The same court, following Argentina’s complaint in 2006, issued a final judgement in April 2010, ruling that although Uruguay had breached its obligation to notify its neighbouring state about the construction plans, the production of cellulose could go ahead as no evidence had been found that the pulp mill was polluting the river.
Marco Brunitto, a researcher at the CAEI (Argentine Centre for International Studies), specialising in international trade and law, told Equal Times that the "Court failed to find a link between the mill’s operations and the level of pollution in the river, due to the effluents from other factories and the cities on both banks.
"The Court ruling," Brunitto emphasises, "was trying to strike a balance between two perspectives: Uruguay’s needs in terms of economic and social development and Argentina’s need to protect the river’s ecosystem and the environment."
The 2010 judgement and the subsequent formation of the Binational Scientific Committee under the supervision of the CARU seemed to signal the end of a controversy that had long dominated and often blocked the proceedings of regional organisations, binational committees and international negotiations.
But this ten-year-old dispute is once again creating division and straining relations between the neighbouring countries.
The tension is such that on 30 September, in Argentina, Mujica and his counterpart Fernández de Kirchner were unable to refrain from making subtle digs, even during the presentation of Francisco, the new ferry between Buenos Aires and Montevideo named in honour of the Pope.
Argentinian members of parliament, headed by the Mayor of Gualeguaychú, Juan José Bahillo, took part in a march to Fray Bentos on 6 October, calling for talks with the Uruguayan authorities over the closure and relocation of the UPM plant.
The deployment of Uruguayan soldiers at the border crossing and the fact that they would only let pass Mayor Bahillo and a small delegation prompted the Argentinian demonstrators to return to Gualeguaychú to discuss the possibility of organising further protests, including measures to block the international bridge, as they had done in the past.
In a press conference on 9 October at the Casa Rosada, Argentina’s Foreign Minister Héctor Timerman, and the governor of Entre Ríos, Sergio Uribarri, presented a report on the pollution caused by the UPM plant.
The analyses carried out by Argentinian scientists reveal that the Finnish multinational is releasing effluents at high temperatures and not only with a high phosphorous content, as claimed by Uruguay’s Dirección Nacional de Medio Ambiente (National Directorate for the Environment), but also pesticides, chromium and phenols.
