Latest news with #MariaDucomls
Gulf Today
08-02-2025
- Health
- Gulf Today
A stream turns blood red in Argentina, residents blame pollution
A stream on the outskirts of Buenos Aires turned blood red on Thursday, causing anxiety among residents who blamed it on pollution. People living in Avellaneda, a town six miles (10 kilometres) from the center of the Argentine capital, described being woken by a stench emanating from the river. "The smell woke us up. In the daytime, when we looked at this side of the river, it was completely red, all stained," Maria Ducomls told AFP. "It looked like a river covered in blood, it's horrible," the 52-year-old said. The Ministry of the Environment for the province of Buenos Aires said in a statement that water samples had been taken to determine what substance had caused the discoloration, citing the possibility of an "organic dye." The color of the stream, which flows through an area of textile and hide processing factories, had faded by late afternoon, according to an AFP journalist. "It's terrible, you don't have to be an inspector to see how much pollution the poor Sarandi River suffers from," said Ducomls, who has lived in the area for more than 30 years. "We have seen the river in other colors — we've seen it bluish, greenish, pink, purplish, with grease on top that looks like oil," she said, blaming nearby factories for dumping waste into the river.
USA Today
07-02-2025
- USA Today
Video shows river turn deep red color in Argentina. Residents say it's not the first time.
Video shows river turn deep red color in Argentina. Residents say it's not the first time. Show Caption Hide Caption Drone shows Buenos Aires river turning bright red Residents in a Buenos Aires suburb became alarmed after a river became bright red. Authorities are investigating the source of the contamination. Videos from a suburb of Argentina's capital of Buenos Aires showing a bright red river has drawn international attention and reignited local fears of chemical dumping. Local residents told Argentinian news outlet C5N that this is not the first time an odd color has been seen in the Sarandí River, located in the municipality of Avellaneda. The area has multiple tanneries, which use chemicals to turn animal skins into leather, according to the Associated Press. 'My husband left our house and said that it was all red," one local woman told C5N. "Although it's red now, other times it's been yellow, with an acidic smell that hurts our throat." The Argentinian Environment Ministry said they have taken water samples from the river to determine the cause of the water's color change on Thursday, according to the BBC. Officials from the Avellaneda municipality suspect the presence of aniline in water samples taken on Friday morning, according to LA NACION. Aniline is a toxic substance that is used in dyes and medicines. Officials said they had lodged a complaint to the Buenos Aires province water authority. Maria Ducomls told LA NACION the water has been tainted in various colors many times. 'I have lived here all my life. Today we have this, the red water. It's been gray, it's been green, it's been a kind of violet, blueish,' she said. 'It's been brown and all types of oils show up at the top [of the water].' Ducomls also said residents have been lodging complaints regarding the contaminated river, but have been repeatedly been told there is no reason to worry. See the red canal here Images show the Sarandi River's water with an intense color red flowing into an estuary, the Rio de la Plata. Fernando Cervantes Jr. is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach him at and follow him on X @fern_cerv_.
Yahoo
07-02-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Video shows river turn deep red color in Argentina. Residents say it's not the first time.
Videos from a suburb of Argentina's capital of Buenos Aires showing a bright red river has drawn international attention and reignited local fears of chemical dumping. Local residents told Argentinian news outlet C5N that this is not the first time an odd color has been seen in the Sarandí River, located in the municipality of Avellaneda. The area has multiple tanneries, which use chemicals to turn animal skins into leather, according to the Associated Press. 'My husband left our house and said that it was all red," one local woman told C5N. "Although it's red now, other times it's been yellow, with an acidic smell that hurts our throat." The Argentinian Environment Ministry said they have taken water samples from the river to determine the cause of the water's color change on Thursday, according to the BBC. Officials from the Avellaneda municipality suspect the presence of aniline in water samples taken on Friday morning, according to LA NACION. Aniline is a toxic substance that is used in dyes and medicines. Officials said they had lodged a complaint to the Buenos Aires province water authority. Maria Ducomls told LA NACION the water has been tainted in various colors many times. 'I have lived here all my life. Today we have this, the red water. It's been gray, it's been green, it's been a kind of violet, blueish,' she said. 'It's been brown and all types of oils show up at the top [of the water].' Ducomls also said residents have been lodging complaints regarding the contaminated river, but have been repeatedly been told there is no reason to worry. Images show the Sarandi River's water with an intense color red flowing into an estuary, the Rio de la Plata. Fernando Cervantes Jr. is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach him at and follow him on X @fern_cerv_. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: See video of deep red river in Argentina as locals fear chemical dump
New York Times
07-02-2025
- Health
- New York Times
Stream Near Buenos Aires Turns Red, ‘Like a River Covered in Blood'
A stream in a suburb of Buenos Aires, the Argentine capital, turned bright red this week, prompting residents to express concern that industrial chemicals could be to blame. Residents of Sarandí, about six miles south of the capital, told local news outlets that chemicals from several factories and tanneries in the area could have changed the color of the stream, which flows into the Río de la Plata, a major body of water between Argentina and Uruguay. Rivers in the area have a history of contamination problems. The Matanza-Riachuelo River basin, for example, has been called one of the most polluted waterways in Latin America. Officials have announced major public works projects to prevent sewage and industrial discharges from entering the basin. The environmental ministry for the Province of Buenos Aires said in a statement that it responded on Thursday morning to a report that the stream in Sarandí was red and that it had taken water samples for testing. It said that the freakish hue could have been the result of 'some type of organic dye.' A ministry spokeswoman said on Friday that results of the testing were not yet available. Maria Ducomls, who has lived in the area for more than 30 years, told Agence France-Presse that she noticed that the stream had turned red after a strong smell woke her up. The Argentine newspaper La Nación described it as a 'nauseating smell, like garbage.' 'It looked like a river covered in blood,' Ms. Ducomls said. She said that the stream had turned other strange colors over the years — bluish, greenish, purplish, pink — and that it sometimes had an oily sheen. 'It's terrible,' she said, blaming pollution for the changing colors. Moira Zellner, a professor of public policy and urban affairs at Northeastern University, who grew up in Buenos Aires and worked as an environmental consultant on river and land remediation projects there in the 1990s, blamed 'chronic lack of regulation and lack of enforcement' for the region's pollution problems. 'Unfortunately, I'm not too surprised,' she said of the red color of the stream in Sarandí. 'There's a huge, long history of pollution in the rivers of Buenos Aires, and it's really heartbreaking. I know some of the populations that have settled there are really suffering from the consequences.' Carlos Colángelo, the president of the Professional Council of Chemistry for the Province of Buenos Aires, told a local news outlet, that he was concerned that chemicals could have been dumped into the stream. 'We have to wait for the results of the analysis, but we can say that a company that would have dumped this is totally unscrupulous,' he said. 'I don't think they are chemical professionals because under no circumstances would they have allowed this waste to be dumped into the water.'
Yahoo
07-02-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
A stream turns blood red in Argentina, residents blame pollution
A stream on the outskirts of Buenos Aires turned blood red on Thursday, causing anxiety among residents who blamed it on pollution. People living in Avellaneda, a town six miles (10 kilometres) from the center of the Argentine capital, described being woken by a stench emanating from the river. "The smell woke us up. In the daytime, when we looked at this side of the river, it was completely red, all stained," Maria Ducomls told AFP. "It looked like a river covered in blood, it's horrible," the 52-year-old said. The Ministry of the Environment for the province of Buenos Aires said in a statement that water samples had been taken to determine what substance had caused the discoloration, citing the possibility of an "organic dye". The color of the stream, which flows through an area of textile and hide processing factories, had faded by late afternoon, according to an AFP journalist. "It's terrible, you don't have to be an inspector to see how much pollution the poor Sarandi River suffers from," said Ducomls, who has lived in the area for more than 30 years. "We have seen the river in other colors -- we've seen it bluish, greenish, pink, purplish, with grease on top that looks like oil," she said, blaming nearby factories for dumping waste into the river. nb/dga/esp/jnd/aph/pbt
