Integrated Urban Water Management

Case Study

Buenos Aires

© 2012 The World Bank 1818 H Street NW Washington DC 20433 Telephone: 202-473-1000 www.worldbank.org Acknowledgments This work was made possible by the financial contribution of the Water Partnership Program (WPP) http://water.worldbank.org/water/wpp. The production of this document was made thanks to the support of the World Bank’s Water and Sanitation Program. This work is a product of The World Bank with external contributions. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this work do not necessarily reflect the views of The World Bank, its Board of Executive Directors or the governments they represent. The World Bank does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this work. The boundaries, colors, denominations, and other information shown on any map in this work do not imply any judgment on the part of The World Bank concerning the legal status of any territory or the endorsement or acceptance of such boundaries. Rights and Permissions The material in this work is subject to copyright. Because The World Bank encourages dissemination of its knowledge, this work may be reproduced, in whole or in part, for noncommercial purposes as long as full attribution to this work is given. Any queries on rights and licenses, including subsidiary rights, should be addressed to the Office of the Publisher, The World Bank, 1818 H Street NW, Washington, DC 20433, USA; fax: 202-522-2422; e-mail: [email protected]. Cover: Buenos Aires, ARG. Source: AySA.

Buenos Aires has experienced fundamental institutional shifts over the last two decades Water supply and sanitation service in Buenos Aires shifted from public provision to a private concession in 1992, and then back to a public model in 2006. Signed in 1992, the Buenos Aires concession was a unique and controversial example of water privatization due to its scale and rapid implementation. The concession was granted to Aguas Argentina, a consortium led by a French firm, and was consistent with the large-scale privatization agenda of Argentina in the 1990s. Starting in 2001, Argentina experienced a financial crisis that contributed to the unraveling of the concession. In 2006 the Argentinian government rescinded the concession contract and established Agua y Saneamientos Argentinos S.A. (AySA).

Mouth of the Rio de La Plata river meeting the Atlantic Ocean. Source: NASA.

The Buenos Aires metropolitan area has one regional water company thereby reducing inter-jurisdictional complications AySA provides water and wastewater services to the capital district of Buenos Aires and the surrounding 17 administrative districts. With a service area of 1,800 km2 containing close to 11 million people, AySA is one of the world’s largest water companies. The national government provides generous financial transfers to AySA which has allowed it to expand water and wastewater services while maintaining relatively low tariffs.

Buenos Aires has ample water resources and AySA is expanding water service coverage The large Rio de la Plata is the source for Buenos Aires’ drinking water. AySA extracts water from the Rio de la Plata and then treats and distributes the water to its customers. Water supply service is generally good, with continuous service that meets drinking water standards. AySA currently provides water to approximately 9 million people or 82% of its service population but has ambitious plans to expand service coverage to 100% by 2015. The extension of service

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Integrated Urban Water Management | Case Study | Buenos Aires

coverage is targeted primarily at low income customers. The abundant water services, combined with low tariffs, has resulted in one of the highest percapita water consumption rates in Latin America, estimated at around 400 liters daily per person. Stormwater drainage is a major challenge for Buenos Aires The major stormwater infrastructure of Buenos Aires was constructed during the 1930s and 1940s, and is currently undergoing a major overhaul to deal with mounting economic losses from flooding. The rapid and generally uncontrolled urbanization of Buenos Aires has resulted in increased impermeability generating higher stormwater flows. The population density of Buenos Aires is one of the highest in the world, with an average of 150 habitants/ha with some areas approaching 400 habitants/ ha. Aggravating the drainage situation are fluctuating water levels due to tides in the Rio de la Plata and high groundwater levels. The worsening situation of flooding and subsequent damage to human life and the economy of the City provided the motivation to substantially increase investments on flood infrastructure. The City of Buenos Aires has developed their Urban Hydraulic Master Plan which lays out a prioritized investment plan1. The goal of the Master Plan is to upgrade the city’s stormwater drainage network to provide protection against 10-year rainfall events. These efforts will reduce the probability of flooding to once every 10 years.

1 See the following website for information on Buenos Aires Hydraulic Master Plan: http:// www.planhidraulico.buenosaires.gob.ar/ 2 See the following website for the AySA’s Plan Director: http://www.aysa.com.ar/index. php?id_seccion=7

Water pollution, particularly in the Matanza Riachuelo Basin is the major issue in the Buenos Aires metropolitan region The Matanza Riachuelo is the major river draining the Buenos Aires Metropolitan region. The river has historically been one of the most contaminated rivers in the world due to the large concentration of industries, particularly those based on the cattle processing such as slaughterhouses and tanneries, as well as metal-based industries. Approximately five million people live in the basin and almost none of the municipal and industrial wastewater was treated in the past. In its lower reaches, there is essentially no dissolved oxygen and the river is devoid of aquatic life. The historically deplorable environmental conditions have caused the city to turn its back to the river, with slums naturally filling the space along its banks. In the early 1990s, the government of Argentina promised to clean up the river in 1,000 days, but was unable to initiate a largescale program.

1. Providing Public Information 2. Controlling Industrial Pollution Control 3. Closing Unsanitary Solid Waste Dumps 4. Constructing Water Supply, Drainage, and Sewerage Networks 5. Improving the River Banks 6. Attending to the Environmental Public Health Crisis 7. Enforcing and Monitoring the Implementation of the Court Ruling In order to implement the last component of the Ruling, the Court devised a three prong strategy: i) the Auditor General of Argentina take financial and budgetary control over the program; ii) the Citizens Advisory Group (Cuerpo Colegiado de Control de la Gestion del Plan) oversees the implementation of the program composed primarily of the NGOs which originally brought the lawsuit; and iii) designation of a federal judge to oversee the program and whose decisions are final and cannot be appealed.

The judicial system is the main driver for the current Matanza Riachuelo Program

AySA and the Government of Argentina have responded to the Court ruling with a comprehensive and ambitious wastewater investment program

In 2008 the Supreme Court of Argentina, in response to a citizen’s lawsuit, ruled that the Government of Argentina, the City of Buenos Aires, and the Province of Buenos Aires were equally negligent and responsible for not controlling the degradation of the Matanza Riachuelo. In a historic ruling, known as the Mendoza Ruling, the Court ordered an accelerated action program for the clean-up of the river. The Court also decreed that the newly established river basin organization: Autoridad del la Cuenca de Matanza Riachuelo (ACUMAR), coordinate the implementation of the program, which consists of seven different components:

The targets for the wastewater master plan, which of course are subject to adjustments, are summarized in the table below2. Taking advantage of the large dilution capacity of the Rio de La Plata river, the general strategy is to collect wastewater in large wastewater interceptors and convey the wastewater to two large pre-treatment plants (Berazategui-33 m3/s and Dock Sud-25 m3/s, peak capacity) which provide screening for trash removal and skimming of floatable materials such as oil and grease, before discharging through long outfalls (Berazategui7.5 kms and Dock Sud-11 kms) with diffusers to dilute the wastewater.

Integrated Urban Water Management | Case Study | Buenos Aires

Table: Summary of AySA’s Wastewater Master Plan Year Population in the service area Network length (Km)

2010

2010-2020

2020

5.901.000

3.440.100

9.341.100

10.100

10.400

20.500

Investment

Modeling studies indicate that the partially treated wastewater will have limited impact on the water quality in the Rio de la Plata. In addition, AySA is constructing a number of smaller secondary wastewater treatment plants in distant urban areas from the Rio de la Plata to avoid the high costs of constructing long interceptors. The 2020 water quality objective for the Rio Matanza Riachuelo is to achieve Class IV standards suitable for passive non-contact recreation with dissolved oxygen concentrations above 2 mg/l at least 90% of the time. In order to ensure that the dissolved oxygen standards are met, AySA is also constructing a series of “sidestream elevated pool aeration” (SEPA) stations alongside the river. The SEPA stations essentially elevate a portion of water from the river, which then flows down a

$10 Billion (App. US$2.5 Billion in 2010)

cascade thereby aerating the water and helping to meet the dissolved oxygen standard. ACUMAR has responded to the court ruling with a dynamic comprehensive industrial pollution program Industrial pollution constitutes about half of the total organic pollution in the Matanza Riachuelo basin and must be eliminated if the Class IV water quality standards are to be achieved. Starting in 2010, ACUMAR has aggressively pursued an industrial pollution program with a special emphasis on the most polluting industries, particularly slaughterhouses, tanneries, and electroplating enterprises. There are approximately 10,715 industries in the basin, of which ACUMAR has surveyed 85%--around 9,500 over a period of two years. As of September

Wastewater Treatment Plant in Buenos Aires Metropolitan areas.

Source: AySA.

2011, 1,507 industries have been declared “pollution sources” (agentes contaminantes) and 1,263 (84%) have presented their pollution control plans (plan de reconversion industrial). ACUMAR has approved 1,005 of the plans and 309 industries are either implementing or have completed their plans. ACUMAR is also offering financial and technical assistance to the small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) to help them meet their pollution control obligations. The speed, scale, and comprehensiveness of ACUMAR’s industrial pollution control program are unprecedented in Latin America. ACUMAR has also moved rapidly on environmental restoration of the Matanza Riachuelo river banks The water quality in the Matanza Riachuelo will improve significantly after the municipal wastewater investments are completed and the industrial pollution control program is fully implemented. In the meantime, ACUMAR has implemented a largescale river front clean-up and river surface improvement program. Over 70% of the 318 km’s of riverbanks have been cleaned and improved, mainly by employing low-income workers through local cooperatives under the “Argentina Works” program. Approximately 114 tons of solids have been removed from the river surface, as well as 61 sunken ships and over 70 cars. In addition, ACUMAR has relocated approximately 2,777 low-income households living along in precarious situations along the river and provided many of them with new housing units. Even though the water quality has not significantly improved yet, there has been a dramatic environmental shift along the river, which is greatly appreciated by local residents and marks the first step in a long-term process to restore the Matanza Riachuelo.

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Integrated Urban Water Management | Case Study | Buenos Aires

Environmental Restoration along the Matanza Riachuelo.

World Bank is providing two large loans for the Buenos Aires Water Program Bank support for the program is channeled primarily through the following two projects: Matanza Riachuelo Basin Sustainable Development Adaptable Lending Program (Loan amount of US$718,032,000 with estimated closing in 2016): The project development objectives include (i) improving sewerage services in the Matanza Riachuelo basin and other parts of the

Province and City of Buenos Aires by expanding conveyance and treatment capacity; (ii) supporting a reduction of industrial discharges to the Matanza Riachuelo river, through the provision of industrial conversion grants to small and medium enterprises; (iii) promoting improved decision-making for environmentally-sustainable land use and drainage planning, and piloting urban drainage and land use investments; and (iv) strengthening ACUMAR’s institutional framework for ongoing and sustainable clean-up of the Matanza Riachuelo basin.

Source ACUMAR.

Urban Flood Prevention and Drainage Project (Loan amount of US$130 million closed in late 2012). The project increases the City of Buenos Aires resilience to flooding through protection of its critical infrastructure and the introduction of a risk management approach to the government investment program. The project focuses on the issue of risk identification and reduction through prevention, mitigation, education and training. The primary infrastructure investment supported by the project is the Maldonado stormwater tunnel.

This case study was prepared by Greg Browder, Lead Water and Sanitation Specialist; with support from Juan Pedro Cano, Junior Professional Associate; and Michael Murphy, Knowledge Management Coordinator. Significant technical contributions and background material were provided by Renan Poveda, Senior Environmental Specialist. This document was made possible through financing from the Water Partnership Program, a partnership for improved water resources management and water service delivery. This text is part of a set of case studies carried out by the World Bank and part of the Integrated Urban Water Management Initiative for Latin America and the Caribbean. For further information, click http://www.worldbank.org/laciuwm.

Please visit: www.worldbank.org/laciuwm