The World Bank (WB) will not finance the work planned by the Buenos Aires Government to create a reservoir for the Arroyo Medrano in Saavedra Park, after the lawsuit filed with the international organization by a group of neighbors in which they requested the cancellation of the project .
The international organization reported the decision through a letter sent to the neighborhood movement from its Claims Attention Servicewhere the “generalized rejection” of the official proposal was raised last July, considering that it did not have flood prevention as its main objective.
The measure, meanwhile, was confirmed to Télam by the Buenos Aires government, which pointed out that “unfortunately, the terms managed by the World Bank could not be adapted to the development of the reservoir.”
“For the moment, the project is on standby”added the sources regarding the initiative of the management of Horacio Rodríguez Larreta to create a 400-meter-long water reservoir that would cross Saavedra Park to mitigate floods.
The work was framed in the Hydraulic Plan that has financing from the World Bank of 200 million dollars. However, the call for bids was not yet available.
“We acknowledge receipt of the additional documentation sent to the Bank in relation to the project to support flood risk management in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires,” the international entity reported in the text sent by email to Jorge Marchini, president of the Popular Library and Neighborhood Association Cornelio Saavedra.
In addition, it maintained that “after the comments received during the consultation process on the intervention in Parque Saavedra and the concerns expressed in its note, the City Government has told us of the need to continue with the participation process linked to the intervention, thus extending the deadline for said process, a decision with which the World Bank agrees”.
“We acknowledge receipt of the additional documentation sent to the Bank in relation to the project to support flood risk management in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires”World Bank Letter
“The need to extend the term becomes incompatible with the terms of the project financed by the World Bank that ends in September 2023, which is why no funds from the World Bank loan will be used for any activity related to this intervention,” he stated. .
The agency stated that transferred the “concerns” of the neighborhood group to the Buenos Aires management “so that they can be taken into account in the development of participation strategies associated with the implementation of this and other interventions”.
The WB’s decision was celebrated by the neighborhood associations of Saavedra, who organized a campaign of opposition to the project shortly after the announcement made almost a year ago which led them to hold festivals, marches and the presentation to the World Bank.
Also, they forced the Buenos Aires administration to hold a public hearing, which lasted five days, in which the majority of the people who participated spoke out against “an open-air ditch” in the park.
“It’s a neighborhood triumph”evaluated from the Saavedra assembly and remarked that “The neighborhood struggle and the resistance of the neighborhood put a limit to an absolutely inefficient project, meaningless and without consultation.”
Initially, the work referred to the reopening of a section of the Medrano stream, which has been piped since 1942 and crosses the green space, but was modified by the Buenos Aires management during the months following the presentation due to the wave of rejections.
Subsequently, he pointed to the regeneration of the stream, to conclude in the proposal of the reservoir as a flood reliever since the Saavedra area, bordering the park, registered cases of severe flooding, such as in April 2013, when six people died due to flooding. after a rainy season.
In this regard, in the letter to the World Bank, the residents suggested that the resources planned for the work in Parque Saavedra “be immediately used for the construction of a second reservoir” in Parque Sarmiento, which -according to what they considered- “would have a greater capacity potential water deposit”, which would help in the days of intense rains.
