By clothing-bag, 17/11/2022
The bad water route: arsenic, an invisible enemy that stalks the inhabitants of the north of the country
Bad water.Sounds like "Turbia Water".To "not take".But in northern Argentina it means that it has arsenic.Although it is a natural semimetal, which does not depend on human intervention, intoxic.
In more than half of the rural areas of the North, where SED stalks the poorest, their level of concentration in water is well above the acceptable according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
Experts speak of a maximum of 10 micrograms per liter of arsenic in the water as a limit until it begins to generate health consequences.But in the Chaco there are areas with maximum of 800 μg/l, in Formosa with 900 μg/l and in Santiago del Estero, in the town of Mili, the contamination record became 2.400 μg/l.
The danger is that it causes a slow but very corrosive disease and multiple derivations.Is called hacre (chronic endemic chronic hydroarsenicism).A difficult name to remember for a Buenos Aires, but present in the vocabulary of the inhabitants of the forgotten interior.
Despite the numbers -and that arsenic levels light alarms in 16 Argentine provinces -, the issue is not a priority of public policies.
WHO places arsenic among the 10 most worrying chemicals for public health.When this semimetal is concentrated, it can generate a fungus that causes different ailments: dermatitis, rashes, gastrointestinal disorders, anemia.But also lung, leather, bladder, kidneys.Before that, in the north it is noticed in the smiles without teenagers.
Experts say that prolonged consumption for 10 or 15 years of a water containing those large amounts of arsenic generates disease.That water is the one consumed by Argentines in the north.Every day.
In addition to the lack of water, the main problem is the quality of water that is obtained through the drilling of wells, which comes from below.
The State prepares to initiate for the first time the "National Epidemiological Study to determine the health impact of water consumption with arsenic".But the results will not be immediately.
Meanwhile, in the absence of a public policy that is occupied with guaranteeing the right to access safe water, NGOs appear.Clarín accompanied one of them on one of the many routes of thirsty Argentina.
Stories with thirst
"In this place we are all aboriginal.That is why we say neighborhood that Juan Sosa (Qompí, means "all together").30 kilometers from here, in the new land, there are people who do not rain have nowhere to get water.They have to travel kilometers to fill a drum.These people really suffer, ”says referent Pilagá Ignacio Silva.
From the hand of Fundación Aguas, which for a year travels the country analyzing the quality of the water, developing access projects for sustainable use in time and giving training workshops in schools and community centers, Clarín tried to meet the communities of the communities of thethat Ignacio spoke.
The road was already raided so that the "white man" - as they called this team, although it was a journalist and an audiovisual filmmaker - he has access to them in Pozo del Tigre, Formosa.But the rain, although very slight, prevented the step.Even aboard a 4x4.It is not "to" pass.
On that same path go the 40 families of the community to look for water in times of drought.On the wet earth, the wheels of the truck would have broken the land of the crossing that the aborigines must then do in carts.5 or 10 liter drums full.Mules thrown.
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"They make more than 3 kilometers to fill those drums.The Salazar fell (they covered) a wooden well.That water is in the worst conditions.The animals take from there.Water is a basic need for people.For food, for mate, to wash clothes.That approve the safe water project would be a blessing to the people of these communities, which are very remote, ”details the 68 -year -old aboriginal.
When he talks about "remote" community, he refers to families who don't have light either.No school.That do not know more medical services than the basics offered by a room for help in the Qompi neighborhood.If they are "very bad" they arrive at the town hospital.Panza pains, teeth fall and other more serious conditions suffer.That, traced, will be repeated throughout this route of thirsty Argentina.
Do you know that they can get sick from the water of that well?"Nope.They take any puddle.If it rains and there is a bass there (where the water accumulates), they take.They do not know that it is contaminated.That we find out later, with the water analysis, ”he says.
For them, the visual is the diagnosis to take it or not: if it is clear, it is taken.
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The area most affected by arsenic is the Chaco-Pampeana plain, in the center of the country.20% of its inhabitants also have the unsatisfied basic needs.Poverty is much greater in Chaco: 17% of the total population lives in rural communities with less than 2.000 inhabitants, while almost 12% live in settlements, scattered, with less than 50 inhabitants.
Statistics is important: shallow wells, with high arsenic concentrations, are the only available drinking water resource throughout the year for the majority of the rural population.
In this "bad water route" there are two clearly marked times.Moisture, from Rain, from October to April.The rest of the year, drought.In the time without water, they drink "water from puddle", as they call it.Well.
When asked: Do you know it's not safe water? They answer: worse is thirst.From the Foundation they say that "there are a certain level of consciousness".Mothers believe they know why their children get sick.But they are suspicion.From the government they don't say."You have to investigate whether the quality of that water has to do with the diseases they suffer.From there, raise awareness, ”says Juan Lapetini, president of the Foundation.
The children of arsenic
Children are more susceptible to adults for the adverse arsenic effects.Dermatological diseases - hyperpigmentation through freckles and thickening of the palms of the hands and soles of the feet - appear faster in them.In addition, those who were exposed to this substance from pregnancy and breastfeeding may have a lower neurological performance than those not exposed.
“My children had diarrhea, Escherichia coli, their belly hurt.Not now.Rainwater, filtered, is a great help.Before we consumed from the well and we didn't know he was so contaminated.Now I can differentiate that he had that rare taste (the fingertips is touched.That place, precisely, is called Pampa delio.
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That time before referring to is his life before Maximilian.
Cistern works by gravity.The rainwater is directed towards the filter by a system of gutters located on the roof of the house.The filtering process consists of two stages: in the first phase, the heavy metals of water are removed by absorption, that is, by a filtering through a pregradeulate, to which the metals adhere when they come into contact with the surface.
Then go through another filter that works by capillarity.This is made up of thousands of cavities just a little thicker than a human hair, 0.1 micron.Being so thin, they unbacterial the water, because the smallest bacteria measures 0.5 micron.
Having it, Patricia did not require her neighbor's help to get the water.But he wanted to help him."They told me that so many years consumed the water of that well that were going to continue taking it," he says.
Then, everything depends on the rain."The rain has to be 100 (millimeters) up so that between 1.20 or 1.30 m of water," says Maximiliano.On this trip, a week at the end of March, rainy season, the cistern was 1.80 m of water.
“I didn't hurt my belly since I drink safe water.Now I have to get out of there (cistern), put it in the filter and a glass.At school, with the manual, they taught me that I don't have to drink dirty water.So you don't get sick.So that I do not get stones in my gallbladder, ”says Max Romero, a baby who goes to rural school 843 of that area.He is the only one among all the students who does not take "Charco Agua".That manual did not do the state.The foundation did.
The rest, in Pampa delio, does not have the cistern.
Water pointers
"The main problem here is water.We want to produce, but we lack the water.We live this way in winter, which is all drought.For 10 years we had a well that we all got.I had arsenic.Now the water is brought by the commissioners from Vinará.Sometimes the truck is broken, they cannot send the water.There you have to go three, four kilometers by car to bring it, ”says Clarín Eliseo Moreno.He is at home, of material but without doors, in Algarrobales, Santiago del Estero.
His wife, Vanesa, takes water from industrial drums to cook his family, the three travelers of the Foundation and Clarín's envoys.Water water?Never more."Once pumps and the water came out white like milk.Pure arsenic ”, recalls.
In those drums water is for human consumption.The cattle die when the dam is emptied and does not reach the tuna penca, where they manage to get the liquid to take them.
“Imagine in summer, 40 degrees without water to refresh you.It's brave.It suffers a lot, "says Eliseo.And cries.Although transparent, safe water does not attract votes.It does not appear in the campaigns.
A drop of knowledge
In July 2018, the Ad-Hoc Group "Arsenic in Water" of the CONICET Food Safety Network (RSA) presented to the National Food Commission (CONAL) its final report.First they talked about the lack of data from the State.Of this invisibility of arsenic.Then, from the lack of action to save lives.
“In Argentina, due to the large number of people who may be affected, the actions to be taken on arsenic must constitute a state policy led by the national government accompanied by the regional and local governments where the impact of the problem is greater.The creation of a multidisciplinary government body that focuses on the arsenic problem from different points of view should be proposed, including epidemiological surveillance, promoting and undertaking specific scientific and technological research with sufficient resources with sufficient resources.As a more correct action, we think that the affected communities should be given adequate and sustainable systems for water sanitation with the installation of drinking water networks, ”says experts.
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The concrete?“A plan with goals to be met in stages should be developed.Setting, for example, a five -year period to lower the limit to 30 μg/l and 10 years to reach 10 μg/l, if this were the maximum value agreed in the country ”.As stated at the beginning of this note, that is still under discussion in Argentina.It will only be defined when the first arsenic study funded by a national government is carried out.
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