The Ministry of the Environment ordered the two sand companies to stop their activities of extracting aggregates and damming that implied the diversion of the course of the Arroyo Vejigas, one of the main tributaries of the Santa Lucia River. This decision was made after a complaint of the Municipality of Canelones on the situation of the river.
In turn, companies will also be fined for the damage done. In principle, they will be 100 resettable units (around $157 thousand) for having made a temporary modification of the course and 200 resettable units (around $315,000) for failing to comply with the “Action Plan for the Protection of Environmental Quality of the Santa Lucía River Basin, Second Generation Measures”, provided for in the decree No. 371/019. But these amounts may vary after the companies respond to the resolution with their respective disclaimers.
For their part, they are invited to present a plan to rebuild the affected area in ten days, which must include the recomposition of the fluvial ecosystem in the intervened areas, with the objective of restoring the natural dynamics of the bed of the Arroyo Vejigas. At the same time, it must also include a plan for the removal of materials and blocking the channels built.
The complaint was made on February 2 when Yamandú Orsi denounced that sand trucks that work upstream of San Ramón were diverting the course of the Santa Lucía River, a situation that he defined as “serious, inadmissible, and scandalous.”
Orsi went to the Executive Tower to find out about the issue to the Undersecretary of the Environment, Gerardo Amarilla, who a few hours later ordered the opening of a file to verify the existence of “environmental damage.”
Along with images and videos showing the changes in the Santa Lucía riverbed, Orsi gave the government a summary of the actions taken by the Canary Islands community.
According to the administration, the route that should be the normal course of the Santa Lucía, is now “totally covered.” They also denounce the creation of an embankment more than 2 meters high that “obstructs the natural course of the river diverting it to a side that did not flow before“.
“It is a national aggression, in the middle of a drought that we have never seen. That this is happening in Saint Lucia is inadmissible if not scandalous,” Orsi said at a press conference after meeting with Amarilla. “The course of the river is being changed a few meters from the San Ramón water intake. We are talking about the Santa Lucía River that supplies 2 million people“, he claimed.
According to the hierarch, those responsible were sand companies and they deal with “inadmissible management, a violation of the environment.” “The course is diverted at a difficult moment in the water.” “I don’t know if it’s negligence but controls are missing“, he added.
