The mayor of Canelones and candidate for the Broad Front, Yamandu Orsidenounced through his Twitter account that excavating machines “stop and modify” the course of the Santa Lucía River.
Orsi uploaded a video to his Twitter account that shows how excavating machines make earth movements in the San Ramón area on the night of Friday, May 12, and described the process as “illegal mining.”
In these moments of crisis due to lack of water, we cannot hesitate to stop the abuses. They act at night, slow down and modify the course of the river. Let’s put all the weight of the State to control our Santa Lucia River. Let’s act now. We cannot sit idly by. pic.twitter.com/hyAPHdahp3
— Yamandu Orsi (@OrsiYamandu) May 14, 2023
“In these moments of crisis due to lack of water, we cannot hesitate to stop the abuses (…) Let’s put all the weight of the State to control our Santa Lucía river. Let’s act now. We can’t sit idly by“, launched the opposition leader to the national government on the social network.
The video, captured by the Municipality itself, also shows the consequences that were generated in the Santa Lucía River on the morning after Saturday, May 13.
Conflict with the national government
From the Municipality of Canelones they believe that the national government “relativized” the warnings What did Orsi do? However, from the Ministry of Environment they affirm that they have not received a formal complaint.
“There was no complaint despite our requestwe have not received a location,” said Undersecretary of the Environment Gerardo Amarilla to The Observer.
The Mayor of Canelones denounced for the first time that the course of this river was being affected in February of this year. The Ministry of the Environment opened a file to study the case.
As a result of that investigation two sand companies were intimidated to stop their activities extraction of aggregates and damming that implied the diversion of the course of the Arroyo Vejigas, one of the main tributaries of the Santa Lucia River.
They were also fined with $157 thousand for having made a temporary modification of the course and around $315 thousand for non-compliance with the Action Plan for the protection of the river.
