Focus area
Matanza-Riachuelo
A heavily urban river basin in and around Buenos Aires that is the subject of a long-running Supreme Court cleanup order.
South America
Argentina
Focus area
The Matanza-Riachuelo in Buenos Aires: a heavily urban river basin and the people who keep its story in view.
Geography and context
Argentina's capital, Buenos Aires, sits on the Rio de la Plata, and the Matanza-Riachuelo drains the urban and industrial areas around it. The basin crosses 14 municipalities and covers about 2,238 square kilometers, and the World Bank has described it as the most contaminated urban river basin in Argentina.
In 2008 the Argentine Supreme Court ordered a cleanup of the basin after a lawsuit brought by residents. Civil society groups have followed the process closely since, which makes the Matanza-Riachuelo a place where local expertise is already deep and well documented.
Focus area
Opportunities we may explore
- Learn from Argentine environmental, legal and public-health organizations that have followed the basin for years.
- Explore simple, repeatable river and stream monitoring that local teams can maintain.
- Look at ways to keep litter from reaching streams and the shoreline, working with neighborhood groups and cooperatives.
- Treat safe water access as its own program, led by qualified local specialists.
Organizations to explore
Organization to exploreWorks on this waterway
FARN (Fundacion Ambiente y Recursos Naturales)
An independent Argentine civil society organization, active since 1985, working on environmental protection and human rights. Its website lists the Riachuelo as a thematic area, and the Buenos Aires city government names it as one of the civil society organizations in the Cuerpo Colegiado created after the Supreme Court's 2008 ruling to follow the cleanup. In 2025 FARN and other organizations took a complaint about the basin to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
Official website of FARN (Fundacion Ambiente y Recursos Naturales) (external site)
Organization to exploreWorks on this waterway
Greenpeace Argentina
The Argentine branch of Greenpeace, which describes itself as a nonprofit, independent organization that does not accept donations from governments, companies or political parties. The Buenos Aires city government lists it among the civil society organizations in the Cuerpo Colegiado that follows the Matanza-Riachuelo cleanup, and its own ten-year article on the 2008 ruling comments on the basin and on planned incinerator plants there.
Organization to exploreWorks on this waterway
ACDH (Asociacion Ciudadana por los Derechos Humanos)
A multidisciplinary Argentine non-governmental human rights organization, active since 1989, whose programs include environment and water issues. The Supreme Court accepted it as an interested third party in the Matanza-Riachuelo case, and it is listed among the civil society organizations in the Cuerpo Colegiado. Its website carries a series of posts on the Riachuelo, including a 2025 complaint to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. It is a rights and advocacy organization rather than a field cleanup group.
Official website of ACDH (Asociacion Ciudadana por los Derechos Humanos) (external site)
References
Know these waters?
If you live or work in Argentina, your knowledge matters more than ours. We would like to listen.
Connect with us