Waste Dynamics by Antonia Besa by ANTONIA BESA

waste dynamics rethinking public space AS AN AGENT OF CHANGE IN the Reconquista River informal settlements Buenos Aires, ARGENTINA.

THESIS BY ANTONIA BESA LEHMANN antoniabesa@gmail.com master of landscape architecture university of melbourne, 2017.

waste dynamics rethinking public space AS AN AGENT OF CHANGE IN the Reconquista River informal settlements Buenos Aires, ARGENTINA.

THESIS BY ANTONIA BESA LEHMANN antoniabesa@gmail.com master of landscape architecture university of melbourne, 2017.

My deep gratitude to Gini Lee who supervised my work, for inspiring me to explore responses to social inequality through landscape architecture design. My appreciation also extends to Flavio Janches, for generously sharing his on the ground experience and research related to the cases studied. My acknowledgements to Lisa Diedrich, who kindly gave long-distance feedback to my work in progress. I also want to give thanks to all those who collaborated with my research from Argentina: Carolina Chantrill from the Inter-American Bank of Development, Karina Campos from the Buenos Aires Province, Cecilia Cardini and Gerardo Elsesser from the San MartĂn Municipality and Hayley Henderson, PhD Candidate from the University of Melbourne. Finally, my appreciation to Mara Anselmi, Director of the River Reconquista Committee (COMIREC), for her interest in taking this proposal further.

contents

1- public space in the unequal city

2- PUBLIC SPACE AS AN INTEGRATING ENTITY eCOLOGICAL INTEGRATION SOCIO-POLiTICAL INTEGRATION ECONOMIC INTEGRATION

3- VULNERABILITY ANALYSIS of the reconquista river settlements

BUENOS AIRES INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS RECONQUISTA RIVER ENVIRONMENTAL & Sanitation PROGRAM SAN MARTÍN INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS 4- ON THE GROUND COLLABORATIVE DEBATE

INTERVIEWS TO LOCAL REPRESENTATIVES PRECEDENTS OF COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION 5- MAPPING OF UNSEEN MOVEMENTS

VILLA 8 DE MAYO & SURROUNDINGS BARRIO INDEPENDENCIA & SURROUNDINGS TERRITORY 6- UNCOVERING THE SITE`S NARRATIVES

WATER RECLAMATION WASTE sorting LEGITIMATION COMMUNAL VOICES 7- INTERSECTIONS AS A RESULT 8- DESIGN STRATEGIES

42 44

9- VILLA 8 DE MAYO: response to contaminated & flood-prone soils DESIGN STRATEGIES PLAN VIEW TYPOLOGIES 10- BARRIO INDEPENDENCIA: response to waste sorting DESIGN STRATEGIES PLAN VIEW TYPOLOGIES

11- CONCLUSION

12- REFERENCES & APPENDIX

Public space has the capacity to upgrade the living conditions of informal settlements by building ecological, political and economic networks of connections with the surrounding context.

Particularly in undocumented sites, public space should be informed by an on-ground mapping of local spaces and narratives, uncovering and responding to the unseen needs of the territory.

Aerial images of the different urban fabrics and unequal realities along the Reconquista River basin. Ref: Google Earth, 2017.

1- public space in the unequal city

he modern city is in a crisis of inequality. The intention of this project is to re-prioritise public space as a method to tackle this urgent issue that affects, not only Latin American cities but also a part of the globe`s contemporary urbanism, revealed in fragmented cities of contrasts and injustices. Almost a third of the world`s urban population in developing countries resides in informal settlements, and this proportion continues to increase (UN-Habitat, 2016:13). Public space can contribute to social integration. However, in the Latin American context shaped by neoliberal policies, it has been primarily conceived as a uniform object of commercialisation, rather than a method to solve the citizensâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; particular needs. The result is a repetitive public space design that follows a clear formula to attract the wealthiest groups of society whilst continuing to marginalize the rest. This open space homogenisation also affects the relationship with nature, simplified in fragments of greenery and trees, rather than an understanding of the ecological needs of each particular site.

This thesis will contribute to the debate on the essential role of public space as a social integrator. The case study will be the informal settlements of San MartĂn, Buenos Aires, located on the edges of the highly polluted Reconquista River. The proposal suggests a replicable methodology of public space design within informal settlements, informed by local behaviours and movements, to build the missing connexions with the formal city. In this case study, the on-ground mapping of waste dynamics defines the purpose of the public space. Thus, public space seeks to convey environmental awareness of the site, improve the political identity of settlements within the city and relate to a greater economic network. This approach to the project re-frames the current Environmental Sanitation Program of the Reconquista River operated by the local regional government, understanding public space as the essential method to face the changing needs of a territory, from immediate concerns to the broader ecological scope. To commence with, the selection of public space as a method for achieving integration will be clarified. Why public space?

RE-TIMING the emergence of an environmental awareness

2- PUBLIC SPACE AS AN INTEGRATING ENTITY

WHY PUBLIC SPACE? ECOLOGICAL INTEGRATION

In Argentina, alternative plans for upgrading the informal settlements in-situ have been adopted after past experiences of eradication programs (Janches, F. 2012:39), which enlarged the marginalisation conflict rather than providing a solution. This implies the legal validation of temporary sites, occasionally located in hazardous and insalubrious land such as flood plains or landfills; that is the case of the San Martín informal settlements in the Reconquista River basin. The settlements formalisation is consequently thought of as part of a large-scale plan for improving the context environmental conditions and provide basic services. However, solutions take decades in being accomplished due to the frequent political instability and heightened levels of bureaucracy evident throughout Latin America. This affects people’s expectations and conflicts with the timeframes of everyday life in informal settlements, where the focus is placed on surviving in the present. Integration to the formal city entails a local understanding and response to its ecological problems. The care of the environment should not be restricted

to specific sectors, especially considering that its effectiveness also depends on the future actions of the inhabitants. Public space has the capability to re-time the emergence of an environmental awareness, by immediately establishing the recognition of the conflict -in this case, the waste propagation across the landscape and the particular lack of certain basic services- to start a process of progressive change of citizens’ behaviours and their living conditions. The notion of recreational public space will be pushed to a concept of service and productive design responding to the urgent needs of waste management and flooding, among others. This means bringing the context problems into the civic space through defined programs, to collectively address solutions. Therefore, when major sanitations plans are accomplished, citizens’ conducts will be already trained to self-maintain their surroundings. This is a complementary approach to the environmental conflict, which collaborates with the large-scale program, however functions on a more local basis, and with immediate time frames.

“¿It might be asked if there is any way of dating what can be called the moment of emergence of an awareness of space and its production: when and where, why and how, did a neglected knowledge and a misconstrued reality begin to be recognized?” Henri Lefebvre, 1974

IDENTITY through adaptability

2- PUBLIC SPACE AS AN INTEGRATING ENTITY

WHY PUBLIC SPACE? socio-POLITICAL INTEGRATION

The value of public space in informal settlements relies on its flexibility and singularity, as it constantly adapts to the changing variables of a particular setting. The contradiction arises when urban projects implant a homogeneous formality without enhancing this distinctive mutable character. Formalising the informal raises the interrogation of how consolidated design projects should be. Social housing architecture has presented several effective examples in this matter, where designers built the projects` basis for citizens to complete, enhancing their appropriation. However, in terms of public space, much more can be achieved. Public space has the capacity to sustain different forms of urban life by reutilizing the same space. Hence, inhabitants are able to experiment uses and appropriate the space differently in relation to their temporal interests. By this way, a local identity emerges. This distinctiveness allows the integration of the settlement with the formal city by re-positioning it, forming new ways of interaction with the surroundings, and breaking down the unsafe perceptions of the settlement. Therefore, rather than consolidating public space solution the project aims to generate a flexible design that adapts to different uses and transforms based on the opportunities and limitations that can arise through its development.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Improvisation suggests a shifting and highly creative design process. Through this exchange, new hybrid landscapes unfold that are based on standard landscapes types but are transformed by the social needs and uses of their immediate communityâ&#x20AC;? Walter Hood, 2004.

engagement through incentives

2- PUBLIC SPACE AS AN INTEGRATING ENTITY

WHY PUBLIC SPACE? economiC INTEGRATION

Public space in the informal settlements should respond to the context of scarcity -lack of services, of savings, of jobs- by defining new modes of production. This public space infrastructure will work only with people participation. Inhabitants are not only the main users of the space but also the ones who negotiate their transformations in time and maintain it. For ensuring this participation, public space should be organised under a system of incentives: New leaderships, jobs, and the possibility of individual and collective-savings. Economic benefits from public space will facilitate the emergence of a community-led management. An effective social infrastructure will build new relations with its context. Integration with the formal city will arise through partnerships for construction and financing of the public space transformation process.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Cities are characterized by incessantly flexible, mobile, and provisional intersection of residents that operate without clearly delineated notions of how the city is to be inhabited and used. These intersections (...) have depended on the ability of residents to engage complex combinations of objects, space, persons and practices. These conjunctions become an infrastructureâ&#x20AC;? Simone AbdouMaliq 2004 15

Buenos Aires municipality Reconquista basin Informal settlements previous to 2003 Informal settlements after 2003 N 0

20km

3- VULNERABILITY ANALYSIS of the reconquista river settlements

BUENOS AIRES INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS

Buenos Aires (Argentina), with a growing population of 15.5 million (World Population Review, 2017), has a long history of dealing with two parallel urban forms that rarely coincide: the formal and the informal city. The latter is recognised by the locally named “villas miseria” (misery slum) or “villas de emergencia” (emergency slum), stating their precarious conditions as settlements and questionable transitory nature. From the 1950`s through to the 1980`s, government actions focused on the violent eradication of villas, without delivering alternative solutions to their inhabitants. In response to the housing deficit, only since the 2000s have significant investments been provided to finance the construction of new dwellings (Bettatis, C, 2008:93, 94). However, during the last 15 years, the number of villas almost tripled in the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Region (BAMR) - from 376 registered in 2001 (Cravino, M. C. et al 2008) to 1,585 in 2016 (Subsecretaría Social de Tierra Urbanismo y Vivienda, 2017)- due to the institutional and economic crisis of 2001-2003 and the consequent increase of inequality and unemployment (Bettatis, C, 2008:93). Excluded from the formal Buenos Aires, the majority of these precarious settlements are spread across the province in residual sites, such as floodplains and polluted areas, and in some cases, disconnected from the clean water and sewer urban systems (Techo, 2016).

This is the case of hundreds of informal settlements located within the Reconquista River basin, in the northwest area of BAMR. Comprising 18 municipalities, this catchment area is inhabited by 4.6 million people (INDEC, 2010), 10% of the national population . Marginalised and industrialised the Reconquista River is extremely degraded. Its tributary course of 82 km of length becomes progressively more contaminated, discharging it waters into the Luján River that continues to La Plata River and subsequently to the Atlantic Sea. What is more, pollution expands through frequent flooding events in the area, significantly impacting the villas.

1 2 3 4 5 6

Lack of fresh water Lack of sewerage Electricity Flooding Landfill presence Lack of transport links Buenos Aires municipality Reconquista basin Informal settlements San MartĂn informal settlements

N 0

10km

3- VULNERABILITY ANALYSIS of the reconquista river settlements

RECONQUISTA RIVER ENVIRONMENTAL & Sanitation PROGRAM

Thirty years ago , sanitation and flood control interventions started along the basin and resulted in the channeling of certain segments of the river (Álvarez C., 2010:12). However, environmental problems continued, and bottom-up claims started to arise. In 2006, the Provincial Government created the Reconquista River Basin Committee (COMIREC) for coordinating the civil initiatives and demands with provincial authorities (COMIREC, 2017). Nevertheless, this governmental agency lacked the capacity to execute the necessary interventions. Four years later, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) commenced a technical cooperation together with the Buenos Aires Provincial Government, initiating a research project that allowed the preparation of the Reconquista Environmental Sanitation Program (RESP). In 2014, the U$880 million plan was approved in three phases, of which 80% would be provided through loans made available by the IBD and the remaining investment covered by the local government (IBD, 2014a). The project comprises a series of interventions that attempt to revert the river`s environmental degradation and social marginalization, such as the extension of water networks and sanitary sewer systems, the reduction of clandestine waste sites and remediation of existing landfills, the construction

of road infrastructure, and environmental and social management actions (IBD, 2012). The construction of green space has been also aimed in specific reports (Álvarez C., 2010), albeit, not as a priority. The RESP is an extremely complex project due to the large-scale of the basins’ degraded area, the multiple variables that need to be resolved and the various actors to be coordinated. Instead of trying to re-think a master plan - the effectiveness of which has proven to be conditional on the uncertain stability of the political and economical context - this proposal will begin from the other side: bottom-up; from the very local and manageable, to the big picture. Still, framed under the RESP top-down initiative. An analysis of vulnerability was developed, mapping the concentration points of services scarcity within the basin. The San Martín area was selected as the most vulnerable area of the river, resulting from the presence of informal settlements coexisting with watercourses that discharge into the most contaminated part of the Reconquista River. This is a tension zone with specific constraints, such as a lack of sewerage system infrastructure, frequent flooding events, nearby landfills, clandestine waste sites and polluted canals; among others.

3- VULNERABILITY ANALYSIS of reconquista river settlements

san martĂn informal settlements levels of vulnerability vs planning timing

The nine informal settlements in San MartĂn have not only a different history and population, but also diverse levels of vulnerability. Therefore, local needs can`t be generalised. Even though the service scarcity is critical, since 2010 to the present, the RESP is still undergoing a consultancy phase and project timeframes continue to expand. The date of completion of the RESP is still unknown.

Lack of fresh water

Lack of sewerage

Lack of electricity

Flooding

Irregular connection to system Public water supply Borehole / well Lack of public lighting Cesspit / ground hole Septic tank / cesspit Flooding with each flood event Flooding with heavy rain events Landfill within settlement Planning phase timeline

Waste removal /Landfill

Lack of transport links

N 0

0.2

0.4 0.6 0.8 1km

3- VULNERABILITY ANALYSIS of reconquista river settlements

san martĂn informal settlements context

A B C D 1 2 3 4 5 6

Existing programs: Active/inactive landfills Industries Jail Private park Levels of vulnerability: Lack of fresh water Lack of sewerage Electricity Flooding Landfill presence Lack of transport links Informal settlements New road project Camino del Ayre freeway Reconquista watercourse

San MartĂn informal settlements are surrounded by landfills and waste. Located only 1km away from the Reconquista River, although its presence is almost imperceptible. This is due to a series of barriers: private properties and industrial sites followed by a freeway, which make accessibility to the river very difficult. What is more, as part of the RESP, there is a new road planned to connect the settlements whilst blocking the informal dwellings propagation. Canals provide the only direct connections towards the river, as they run under the road infrastructure. The intensity of services scarcity has been mapped to understand the particular needs and the possible relations with the context. N 0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1km

3- VULNERABILITY ANALYSIS of reconquista river settlements

san martÃn informal settlements SITE SELECTION

Flooding

SITE 1 villa 8 de mayo FLOODING PROBLEM Recycled water for services

Local wicker craft

Biofilters Wicker plantations

Two informal settlements are selected: Villa 8 de Mayo and Barrio Independencia. The first one is vulnerable to flooding, and the second presents pollution problems, as it is located just beside an active landfill. Therefore, the main programs are defined to activate the public space whilst trying to respond to the sites major problems. From those solutions, jobs and income opportunities arise.

Organic and inorganic waste

SITE 2 barrio independencia

Selection

WASTE PROBLEM Soil to restore

Compost production

Active/inactive landfills Waste recycling industries Lack of fresh water Lack of sewerage Flooding Landfill presence Lack of transport links

A B 1 2 4 5 6

N 0

0.2

0.4 0.6 0.8 1km

4- ON THE GROUND COLLABORATIVE DEBATE

INTERVIEWS TO LOCAL REPRESENTATIVES

C.C.

ESC Program Consultant Inter-American Development Bank Argentina.

To select a critical site within a partially undocumented area without undertaking on-site work for the moment, the research included interviews with individuals who have worked on the Reconquista program through the following agencies: The InterAmerican Development Bank, the Buenos Aires Province Government and the Municipality of San Martín. These discussions allowed understanding the RESP scope and its deficiencies: The lack of a master plan for the area mentioned by C.C. shows the lack of coordination between projects: waste is being removed from the riverbanks without understanding its roots, and it comes back. The low execution of the loan to the date and the volatile political context expressed by K.C. brings up the constant extension of time frames in large-scale projects, affecting people’s expectations. The project should develop immediate bottom-up solutions. The lack of reliable data within the area calls for an on-ground approach to understand the dynamics of the people in the territory.

“There is no master plan. This is the great flaw in the management of territorial and urban projects in Argentina, and I dare say in a large part of Latin America. Interventions are started, and maybe someone in the executive has an idea of how it is articulated, but there is no plan that accounts not only for the location of each project, but also how they relate to each other” “No one takes a real idea of the size and complexity of the area until being on the ground” “There are floods within the informal settlements but you won`t find them documented”

K.C.

Environmental Engineer Buenos Aires Province Government

“There has been a very low execution of the loan. (...) The executing company of the integrated management plan for the basin has not yet been hired. (...) There was a change of Minister recently and the consultancies and tenders that were already approved are being currently re-evaluated.”

G.E.

Environmental Analyst Municipality of San Martín.

“I have given you the data I got. Prepare yourself because its confusing (...) The municipality has three different SIG shapefiles mapping informal settlements (...) I don’t know the criteria used by the one who made them and some are incomplete. I’m sorry I can’t provide you reliable data”.

4- ON THE GROUND COLLABORATIVE DEBATE

precedents of community participation

Even though the RESP upgrading projects are undeniably improving the local living conditions, they tend to formalise the informal by providing services only. Patterns of marginalization and structural inequalities may remain if the villas’ inhabitants are not considered crucial actors of this process. The purpose of this proposal is to design a public space infrastructure within the settlement, which improves the living conditions not only by providing services, but also by developing a network of ecological, political and economic connections between the informal settlements neighbours and the formal city, catalysing revitalization. To inform the design, a mapping of ‘Villa 8 de Mayo’ and ‘Barrio Independencia’ was undertaken. It included the reinterpretation of provided diagnosis research developed by the Playspace Foundation in ‘Barrio Independencia’ during 2011, and by Iconoclasistas in ‘Villa 8 de Mayo’ during 2013; together with personal research from different sources. Both referential studies were developed on-site through community participation sessions. These projects were also precedents of ways of thinking the problem: Working with waste wasn’t my definition but a response to the sites situation.

Flavio Janches has developed a methodology that seeks to transform the intermediate spaces of informal settlements in Argentina into playground systems. By this way, a process of improvement of the context through the game, the interaction and the appropriation of the community is initiated. In the Villa Tranquila Neighborhood project, the diagnosis of the area that informed the design was developed on-site through a community participation process run together with university students. By involving the community in the definition of their public space, Janches intends to support people`s own upgrading process. In Barrio Independencia, the Playspace Foundation developed a linear park, not yet built. Janches generously shared the site analysis carried out with the community for the development of this thesis. Villa Tranquila Neighborhood Flavio Janches, Max Rhom. Buenos Aires, 2012.

Flavio Janches

Founder of Playspace Foundation Professor at University of Buenos Aires & University of Harvard

Julia Risler & Pablo Ares

Founders of Iconoclasistas

The iconoclasistas, directed by Julia Risler and Pablo Ares, is an organisation that develops collaborative research to document the territories`dominant stories, based on the knowledge and daily experiences of locals. By revealing unseen movements of a site, they aim to push a debate. The mappings are usually exhibited or published through creative commons licenses, promoting free circulation and its derived use. Together with the inhabitants of San Martín, the Iconoclasistas developed “La República de los Cirujas” mapping (The Republic of Waste Surgeons). After a series of meetings and discussions on-site, a pamphlet was developed illustrating the workers claims and achievements as local recyclers, to the Government, the society and the private sector. This mapping was an important reference to the thesis.

Community Mapping in 8 de Mayo Iconoclasistas, 2013.

MAPPING of unseen movements What began as two focused analysis of the informal settlements in question, expanded into a territorial mapping, because the scale of the dynamics of local use transcended the boundaries of the settlements. The mapping also attempts to illustrate the boundary between the formal and the informal city, determined by the presence or lack of services supply. The work of Mathur and Dilip da Cunha was used as a graphic precedent, as it reinterprets an unseen and undocumented landscape through a photographic juxtaposition with the purpose of provoking a debate. To carry out the mapping, local photographs of the area were collected from different sources.

Above: â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;SOAK Mumbai in an Estuaryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Anuradha Mathur and Dilip da Cunha (2009). To the right: Photographs of 8 de Mayo neighborhood provided by Flavio Janches.

5- MAPPING OF UNSEEN MOVEMENTS

villa 8 de mayo

new

& Surroundings

informal landfill

roa

d layo

diego duarte community center

meeting point bus stop

retired & PENSIONED CENTER

libertador lagoon

radio antenna

AMÃ&#x2030;RICA MESTIZA CULTURAL CENTER 8 DE MAYO COMMUNITY CENTER

broken bidge

recycling social plant

2016 2017

2004

Formal city with services provided Active Landfill New road layout Commercial roads Community-led institutions Waste sorting in public space Water body area

LIBERTADOR SPORT CENTER

N 0

100

150

200

250km

barrio independencia & Surroundings

private cemetery

recycling social plant recycling social plant

street market

primary & secondary school

sociedad de fomento

‘pejerrey’ landfill

car junkyard

pejerrey lagoon

health center

communal dining `miguitas de amor school number 53

child care centre

MOTHERS CENTER

rail warehouse

Formal city with services provided Active Landfill New road layout Formal public space Weekend street market Commercial roads Educational Centers Community-led institutions Health Center Waste sorting in public space Water body area 2004

new paved road & public space over underground canal

2016 2017

private industrial park josé león suárez

N train stop

100

150

200

250km

TERRITORy

ceamse LANDFILL

1967 flooding

informal landfill

radio antenna diego duarte community center

AMÃ&#x2030;RICA MESTIZA CULTURAL CENTER

8 DE MAYO COMMUNITY CENTER

retired & PENSIONED CENTER LIBERTADOR SPORT CENTER

costa esperanza

villa 8 de mayo

9 de julio

‘THE MOUNTAIN’

1000

(ceamse iii LANDFILL)

ONLY 30 - 45 min allowed inside the landfill daily

IV AT E

600

jail

‘reciparque’

7 RECYCLING SOCIAL PLANTS operated by locals

ceamse LANDFILL

university center of san martín (cusam)

‘pejerrey’ landfill car junkyard

E VAT

PRI

MOTHERS CENTER

2 RECYCLING SOCIAL PLANTs

train stop

eucalipto

barrio independencia

13 de julio

2016 2017

2004

N 0

100

200

300

400

500m

uncovering the site`s

NARRATIVES By assembling the local processes of gathering, the formal and informal grids and practices, the networks of incentives, the distribution of needs, the speculation of opportunities, fresh insights arose enabling actions to be taken. These were synthesised in three narratives:

Water Reclamation Waste sorting LEGITIMATION Communal Voices

â&#x20AC;&#x153;As a creative practice, mapping precipitates its most productive effects through a finding that is also a founding; its agency lies in neither reproduction nor imposition but rather in uncovering realities previously unseen or unimaginedâ&#x20AC;? James Corner, 1999

6- UNCOVERING THE SITE`S NARRATIVES

Water Reclamation

1967

Environmental Situation

2016 2017

2004

libertador lagoon

villa 8 de mayo community center

pejerrey lagoon barrio independencia mothers center

JOSÉ LEÓN SUAREZ underground channel

‘Villa 8 de Mayo’ and ‘Barrio Independencia’ are located beside the ‘Libertador’ and ‘Pejerrey’ lagoons respectively. Both areas have been used as landfills and the water bodies filled with waste. In ‘Villa 8 de Mayo’, this activity has been done informally as a way of increasing the surface of land vacant for housing settlement. Aerial photographs available from 2004 onwards show a periodic reduction of the lagoon volume and a consequent extension of dwellings over flood-prone grounds, made of waste. As a result, flooding has been intensified. Thus, neighbours have self-built pathways that facilitate their evacuation in rainfall events (Halcrow 2013b: 81). In Barrio Independencia, all water systems have been filled with waste. The area that once was the Pejerrey lagoon, is nowadays a landfill property of CEAMSE, the public entity in charge of the waste management within Buenos Aires Province. For sanitation purposes, the

local ‘Centro de Madres y Familias’ (Mother and Family Centre) demanded the provincial government to pipe the ‘José León Suárez’ canal underground (Playspace, 2011: 6). Works were developed in 2012 and a standard public space was built in a section above the canal, together with the paving of roads. During the last years, Barrio Independencia has received more public investment for upgrading its open spaces than Villa 8 de Mayo. Waste propagation across both settlements show the local ignorance about the benefits of urban water bodies, treated as backyards, and a misconception of the space needed by the Reconquista River and its tributaries, dramatically exposed in the historic 1967 flooding photograph.

Waste sorting LEGITIMATION ECONOMIC Situation

Active Landfill Inactive Landfill

‘THE MOUNTAIN’ LANDFILL

1000

600

RECYCLING ‘SOCIAL PLANTS`

villa 8 de mayo community center

barrio independencia mothers center

“To dignify our work, that is what our dispute is all about.”

WASTE SORTed IN PUBLIC SPACE

`La República de los Cirujas’ Documentary The origin of waste piled up across the informal settlements is the result of the lack of job opportunities. Residents established a new occupation through community organization, waste collection and recycling, and they are currently fighting for their recognition (Iconoclasistas, 2013). The project will contribute to this purpose. Life revolves around the waste. Settlements are surrounded by landfills within CEAMSE domains. Across the Reconquista River is CEAMSE III, the largest landfill of the country, locally called “the mountain” due to its 60 meters of height. Every day, thousands of residents go there to collect waste. After numerous conflicts, CEAMSE has controlled the access permitting people to only stay for 30 to 45 minutes per day. This means that residents don`t have the chance to select the useful waste within the landfill; instead, they are forced to carry it into 40

their neighbourhood. Consequently, waste is piled up and sorted in roads intersections in the edge of the settlements, and then taken to the dwellings front yards. The waste selection is done individually for personal benefit. Leftovers are abandoned in the streets and water bodies due to a deficient municipality waste collection. With the intention to formalise their job, neighbours established the “Social Plants” for recycling in 2006. To the date, 9 plants distributed around the area -properties of CEAMSE- provide work to 600 neighbours. In this warehouses, the waste is brought from the landfill with trucks for selection. Recycling materials are then pressed into blocks and sold to private entities. The individual waste selection has the potential to be incorporated into this recycling process if quantities of selected garbage are significant. Still, the recycling plants are not enough to compensate the unemployment and the precariousness of the area.

6- UNCOVERING THE SITE`S NARRATIVES

Communal Voices SOCIO- political Situation

jail

villa 8 de mayo community center

Formal public space Weekend street market Commercial roads Educational Centers Community-led institutions Health Center

barrio independencia mothers center

Within the informal settlements, educational and community-led centers function as magnet zones, attracting residents through an extended offer of activities, such as communal dining rooms, educational support, art, theatre, dancing, cinema, martial arts, karate and boxing sessions. As institutions, they provide safety to their members and surroundings, which make them strategic points in the public space. The ‘8 de Mayo Community Center’ and the ‘Mothers` Center’ in Barrio Independencia are actors, the voice of the people. They have a leading role in channelling community demands to different entities, besides providing space for meetings with external agents. Local gathering occurs towards the city more than towards the river. As public transport doesn`t enter into the settlements due to delinquency and dirt roads in bad conditions, street activation -such as street markets- is related to the walking routes towards bus and train stops,

usually located in the intersection between the formal and the informal city. The recreational public spaces across the area is fragmented and reduced to a very few humble playgrounds. The largest green areas -the cemetery within Barrio Independencia and San Martín Park across the freeway- are private and fenced.

INTERSECTIONS as a result

Mapping is an interpretation of the site`s subtle mobility, allowing us to uncover and synthesise its modes of occupation. As designers, we collaborate in revealing what is explicitly seen -such as waste in this case- but not heard or understood. Within this context, garbage shouldn`t be just â&#x20AC;&#x153;cleanedâ&#x20AC;? from the Reconquista River`s banks without comprehending its roots. Pollution is not static or inert but explicitly temporal and pragmatic. Waste means new land surface to settle and a source of a job to communities in need. As designers we also speculate, creating physical forms that intend to enhance the site opportunities with expanded effects. The intersection of the three previous narratives present a field of unexpected frictions: the reclamation of water within the landscape overlaps with the existing and potential dynamics of waste, and community-led activities. Each intersection is a formal public space on its own, that comes at a particular time, where water meets waste selection under the care of an educational or community center. Replication is an intent. With time, its action will propagate conforming a new edge, a sequence of intersected events. Together they convey an ecological awareness of the site conditions and potentials, besides enhancing the settlementsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; political identity as recyclers and demanding a proper economic engagement with the formal city.

Reconquista River cleaning works, 2015. Extraction of waste, and incidentally, of vegetation.

7- INTERSECTIONS AS A RESULT

site 1

site 2

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Forms matters but not so much the form of things as the form between thingsâ&#x20AC;? Stan Allen, 1985

Definition of spatial bubbles as potential public spaces with different dynamics of interaction. Two sites are selected. The classification of waste, carried out in community and individual form separately, has the potential to interact and become one major economic practice legitimized through public space.

Existing educational & community-led centers Waste selection Water bodies & canals Community-led activities Educational Activities Market extension Community Gardens Need of healthy soil: compost Connection with green area Social recycling plant

environmental integration

(3) Therefore, public space will legitimise the waste selection as a formal job and reclaim the existing water bodies by exposing new possibilities of water usage for the settlements benefit. These main purposes will be overlapped to existing uses and potential practises, inviting to reutilise and transform the same space in multiple ways to shape a local identity.

economic integration

(1) A new permeable edge is created at the backdrop of the informal settlements. The settlement`s backyard is activated to face the unseen nature towards the river. The environmental awareness and its sanitation are confronted from the ground, still framed under a topdown long-term program.

SOCIO- political integration

8- design strategies

(5) The informal waste selection, currently practised individually, will be encouraged as a communal job. Potentials of waste will be extended to other fields such as compost for soil production. Design can promote an organised accumulation of recycling/organic material to gather a significant amount that can be sold to the recycling plants or used as healthy soil to restore the environment. If forces are aligned between settlements, the incentives and possibilities for negotiations increases, and a new system of social relations arises.

(2) This edge is shaped by a series of programs intensified at the end of the settlement`s streets. These are existing centralities defined by local rules, where waste has been used to filled lagoons to provide new land surface for housing, or where waste has been strategically piled for selection. The main program of the public space -flooding and waste management in this case- should respond to local needs and respect its spatial occurrence.

(4) To stimulate the public space activation, safety, and ensure a political voice each program intersection is associated to a nearby guardian within the informal settlement, such as community-led centers or educational institutions. Their particular programs and activities will be extended from the building to the outside.

(6) The expansion of the public space is transferred to locals, as they are their users, owners and managers. Strong social relationships between neighbours and their context will contribute to the consolidation of future investment in the area that will come at different times and with diverse budgets (e.g. recycling infrastructure, schools, health centres, etc.) Eventually, when the longterm RESP is completed, neighbours will understand the importance of water and will be already trained for the management of waste.

9- VILLA 8 DE MAYO: response to flooding

environmental integration

DESIGN STRATEGIES

SOCIO- political integration

Strategies have been applied to the first site in Villa 8 de Mayo. From an ecological perspective, the provision of decentralised services in a context with no water or sewage supply, will re-time the environmental awareness by giving immediate solutions. Through the implementation of diverse water collection systems and water recycling, inhabitants will be more conscious of the possibilities of water, which hopefully will make them reconsider filling watercourses with waste. This includes, dwellings rainwater tanks and communal water tanks of recycled black water resulted of an anaerobic buffer reactor as sewerage, that is, an improved septic tank.

From a socio-political perspective, streets will be expanded with overlapped uses enhancing a constant transformation. 46

economic integration

Form an economic perspective, the public space will provide new jobs such as compost production and planting for restoring the area.

10m

9- VILLA 8 DE MAYO: response to contaminated & flood-prone soils

PLAN VIEW

This site is located over the filling of the lagoon. The public space in this case is an elevated deck, a new platform in a context of muddy roads and flooding. The area is characterised by a lack of space. For allowing the cars to keep moving, there is only 2 meters section within the street left for public space. Therefore, the platform expands the private/public space by breaking its limit, opening to the road the few private green spaces of the area.

10m

The proposed platform has the capacity of intersect the services supply, with recreational activities and possible jobs that contribute to restore the area. Community interaction and the appropriation of the settlement`s open space will be enhanced.

SEASONAL - CONSTANT DRAIN

HOUSE EXTENSION + STREET SEATING

GARDEN EXTENSION + STREET LOUNGER STREET 50

9- VILLA 8 DE MAYO: response to contaminated & flood-prone soils

TYPOLOGIES

PLAYGROUND

STAGE + WETLAND

COMMUNAL LAUNDRY

MARKET + WETLAND

COMPOST PRODUCTION + PLANTING

MULTIPLE USES + SEWERAGE & WATER TANKS 51

EXISTING DIRT ROAD

DRAIN + FILTER

9- VILLA 8 DE MAYO: response to contaminated & flood-prone soils

COMPOST

LAUNDRY

PERMEABLE SURFACE WICKER PLANTATIONS

WATER TANK

10- BARRIO INDEPENDENCIA: response to waste sorting

DESIGN STRATEGIES

environmental integration

Strategies have been applied to the second site in Barrio Independencia: Again, decentralised services are provided. The black water from the dwelling toilets, continues to the anaerobic buffer reactor (improved septic tank) that recycles the water, then to a wetland that filters it, and finally a water tank for storing it. Drainage along the street also filters de rainwater an directs it to the wetlands.

SOCIO- political integration

In this case, existing and proposed uses coexist under the surveillance of a community center.

economic integration

From an economic perspective, a space for waste sorting is defined. Compost and planting are also part of the proposal.

10m

10- BARRIO INDEPENDENCIA: response to waste sorting

PLAN VIEW

This site is located where waste has been frequently sorted. It has slightly better existing conditions than the previous site: paved roads, existing trees (pink), and a football court. Therefore, the approach is to work with what is there, and intersects that existing life with a proper space for waste selection. 0

10m

An linear sitting, that is drainage, and shelter, and greenery, an jobs, and services â&#x20AC;&#x201C;all at the same timedefines the public space area overlapping programs.

START BY WHAT IS THERE

SOCCER STAND + WETLAND

PLAYGROUND

SOCCER STAND + COMPOST+ PLANTING

10- BARRIO INDEPENDENCIA: response to waste sorting

TYPOLOGIES

SHELTER FOR WASTE SORTING

SHELTER AS MARKET + KITCHEN

SHELTER FOR COMPOST PRODUCTION

LAUNDRY + WATER TANK

TOILET

2- WETLAND

1- SEWERAGE (ANAEROBIC BUFFER REACTOR)

10- BARRIO INDEPENDENCIA: response to waste SORTING

LAUNDRY

WASTE SELECTION

3- WATER TANK

11. CONCLUSION

This thesis seeks to broaden the discussion around the problem of social inequality in the city and proposes a methodology to follow, a forward vision. The answers are not generalised. That is the reason to work in two different areas, responding to distinct stories and diverse levels of vulnerability. Especially when realising that there are more informal settlements within the basin, whose actions and lack of services supply affects the wellbeing of the Reconquista river in particular ways. The scope of the problem is enormous. During the last 15 years, the number of villas almost tripled in Buenos Aires. This thesis expands the programmatic possibilities of a public space as an agent of change to face this reality. Therefore, the notion of recreational public space has been pushed to a concept of service and productive design responding to the urgent local needs of waste management and flooding. This way of confronting the problem seeks to bring the discussion into the civic space to collectively address solutions. In this context, waste is not inert; it means new land surface to settle and a source of a job to communities in need. Consequently, public space design responds to its dynamics, improving the relationship between housing and waste whilst legitimising the waste sorting as a formal job. By this way, the settlementsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; political identity as recyclers within the city is enhanced, engaging with a larger economic network. These design examples show how public space has the capacity of supplying tools and training for the settlements own upgrading process. But also, provide a vision of better quality open spaces in vulnerable areas that have normally been left out of the public investment. This new aesthetic also contributes to breaking the feeling of danger and the multiple boundaries between the formal and the informal city.

12. REFERENCES AND APPENDIX

THEORY

Allen, S. (1985).

Field Conditions. In Points + Lines.

AbdouMaliq, S. (2004). People as Infrastructure: Intersecting Fragments in Johannesburg, Public Culture 16. 2004 407-429. Bettatis, C. (2008) Urbanización de asentamientos informales en la provincia de Buenos Aires. In Bitácora 15, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá. 2009, Pp. 89 -108.

Corner, J. (1999) The Agency of Mapping: Speculation, Critique and

Álvarez C. (2010) Proyecto Reconquista - Región Metropolitana de Buenos Aires: espacio metropolitano para la inclusión. Gobierno de la Provincia de Buenos Aires Argentina. / Retrieved from http://www. mosp.gba.gov.ar/sitios/reconquista/proyecto/Proy_Reconquista.pdf., July 2017. COMIREC (2017), Ministerio de Infraestructura y Servicios Públicos. Retrieved from http://www.comirec.gba.gov.ar/, August 2017. Halcrow (2013a) Plan de Manejo Integral de la Cuenca del Río

Invention.

Reconquista (Integral Management Plan of the Reconquista River Basin). Inter-American Development Bank (IBD). Volume 1 to 5.

Cravino, M. C., del Río, J. P. & Duarte, J. I. (2008),

Halcrow (2013b) Plan de Manejo Integral de la Cuenca del Río

Magnitud y crecimiento de las villas y asentamientos en el Área Metropolitana de Buenos Aires en los últimos 25 años. XIV Encuentro de la Red Universitaria Latinoamericana de Cátedras de Vivienda. Universidad de Buenos Aires, Facultad de Arquitectura, Urbanismo y Diseño. October 2008. / Retrieved from http://www.igc.org.ar/ megaciudad/N3/Asentamientos%20Irregulares%20AMB.pdf, August 2017.

De Certeau, Michel (1984). The Practice of Everyday Life. Intro, XI-XXIV, Spatial Practices. 91-130. Henderson, H.; MacColman, L. & Janches, F. (2014). Institutional Complexity and Climate Change Adaptation in the Reconquista River Basin, Argentina. Lincoln Institute for Land Policy. / Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/299389309_ Institutional_Complexity_and_Climate_Change_Adaptation_in_the_ Reconquista_River_Basin_Argentina , August 2017.

Hood, Walter (2004). Landscape as Social Infrastructure: Hybrid Modifications - Scraping, Weaving, Stratifying and Lumping. In Raxworthy, Julian. The MESH book: landscape/infrastructure. 2004, 144-165.

Janches, F. & Rhom, M. (2012), Interrelaciones Urbanas. Metodología de trabajo para la inserción de espacio público en asentamientos informales / Urban Interrelations. Work methodology for the insertion of public space in informal settlements. Municipalidad de Avellaneda & Playspace Foundation. Janches, Flavio (2012) Public Space in the Fragmented City. Strategy for socio-physical urban intervention in marginalized communities.

LeFebvre, Henri (1974). The Production of Space. Excerpt in K. Michael Hays, editor. Architecture Theory Since 1968 (2000) 179-188.

Meyer, E. (1997). The Expanded Field of Landscape Architecture. Mathur, A. & Da Cunha, D. (2009). Mumbai in an Estuary. Published by Rupa & Co. New Delhi.

United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UNHabitat) (2016). World Cities Report 2016, Urbanization and Development: Emerging Futures/ Retrieved from http://wcr.unhabitat. org/main-report/#section_eleven , August 2017.

Urban Think Tank (2005). Informal City: Caracas Case. Edited by Alfredo Brillembourg, Kristin Feireiss, Hubert Klumpner.

RECONQUISTA ENVIRONMENTAL SANITATION PROGRAM

Reconquista (Integral Management Plan of the Reconquista River Basin). Inter-American Development Bank (IBD). Annex 5.

Inter-American Development Bank (IBD) (2012) Programa de Gestión Urbano Ambiental Sostenible de la Cuenca del Río Reconquista, Provincia de Buenos Aires, Argentina. Evaluación de Impacto Ambiental y Social Global (EIASG) / Retrieved from http://www.iadb.org/es/ proyectos/project-information-page,1303.html?id=AR-L1121, July 2017. Inter-American Development Bank (IBD) (2014a) AR-L1121 : Programa de Saneamiento Ambiental de la cuenca del Río Reconquista. / Retrieved from http://www.iadb.org/es/proyectos/project-informationpage,1303.html?id=AR-L1121, July 2017.

Inter-American Development Bank (IBD) (2014b) Reconquista River Basin Environmental Sanitation Program (AR-L1121), Loan Proposal. / Retrieved from http://www.iadb.org/es/proyectos/ project-information-page,1303.html?id=AR-L1121, July 2017.

Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Censo, INDEC (2010). Censo de Población y Viviendas. Argentina. http://www.indec.gov.ar/

La Asociación Civil por la Igualdad y la Justicia (ACIJ) (2016), Caminos de la Villa. / Retrieved from https://www. caminosdelavilla.org/, July 2017.

Suárez, F.; Brancoli, D.; Neumann, M.; Ruggerio, C. A. (2010) Del barrio al relleno, del relleno a las Plantas Sociales. El caso de las Plantas Sociales de recuperación de RSU. San Martín-CEAMSE Norte III, Región Metropolitana de Buenos Aires. In “Recicloscopio II”. Buenos Aires, Argentina. /Retrieved from https://www.e-science.unicamp.br/ support/admin/publicacoes/documentos/publicacao_5043_plantas_ sociales.pdf., August 2017.

Subsecretaría Social de Tierra Urbanismo y Vivienda (2017), Registro Público Provincial de Villas y Asentamientos Precarios. Ministerio de Infraestructura y Servicios Públicos, Gobierno de Argentina. /Retrieved from http://www.mosp.gba.gov.ar/subsecretarias/ reg_vilyasent.php, August 2017.

FILMOGRAPHY

MAPPING

Halcrow (2012), Mapas Temáticos (Thematic maps), Map 01 - 36. Programa de Manejo Urbano Ambiental Sostenible de la Cuenca del Río Reconquista. Google Earth (2017), “Buenos Aires”.

Hammond, R. & Tyrnauer, M. (2017). Citizen Jane: Battle for the City. In association with Rockefeller Foundation and Ford Foundation. JustFilms and Huntsman Productions. USA. Universidad Pública de San Martín (UNSAM) (2014). La República de los Cirujas. / Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=UOPjKhosrus, September 2017.

Iconoclasistas (2013). La República de los Cirujas, José León Suárez. Mapa El territorio CEAMSE / http://www.iconoclasistas.net/jose-leonsuarez-argentina, Accessed on September 2017.

NEWS

Ministerio de Economía, Provincia de Buenos Aires (2017). OBRAS - BID 3256 OC – AR. Licitación Pública Internacional 5/17 “Camino de Borde - Área Piloto”. Sección VIII - RLNREC. / Retrieved from http://www.ec.gba.gov.ar/areas/finanzas/docs/bid3256/ obras/LPI_05_17.php, August 2017.

Ministerio de Infraestructura y Servicios Públicos, Provincia de Buenos Aires (2009) Mapas temáticos. / Retrieved from http://www.mosp.gba.gov.ar/sitios/urbanoter/sig/maparecon.php, July 2017.

Municipalidad de San Martín (2017), GIS shapefiles:

El País (2015) Las villas miseria de Buenos Aires saldrán en los mapas. 23 of June of 2015 / Retrieved from https://elpais.com/ internacional/2015/06/22/actualidad/1434996452_148732.html, July, 2017. La Nación (2016) La batalla de vecinos de zona norte para evitar que el Río Reconquista sea el nuevo Riachuelo. 30 of May of 2016. / Retrieved from http://www.lanacion.com.ar/1903660-cuenca-rio-reconquista-vidavecinos-contaminacion-riachuelo, July, 2017.

“localidades” (localities), “macizos” (blocks), COU por parcelas (lots), “calles” (roads), “vías principals” (main roads), “FFCC” (rail), “estaciones FFCC” (rail stations), “Río Reconquista” (Reconquista River), “arroyos” (creek), “cuerpos de agua” (waterbodies), “curvas de nivel” (topography), “espacios verdes” (green areas), “villas y asentamientos” (informal settlements), “CEAMSE” (landfills).

INTERVIEWS

Municipalidad de San Martín (2017), Datos Geográficos. / Retrieved from http://www.sanmartin.gov.ar/la-ciudad/datosgeograficos/July 2017.

Municipalidad de San Martín (2017), Asesor Virtual de

Carolina Chantrill, ESC Program Consultant, Inter-American Development Bank, Argentina.

Zonificación. / Retrieved from http://www.sanmartin.gov.ar/tramites/ ingreso-al-sistema//asesor-virtual-de-zonificacion/, July 2017.

Karina Campos, Environmental Engineer, Buenos Aires Province

Playspace (2011). Proyecto de Urbanización: Espacios Públicos en Barrio Independencia. San Martín. Informe Diagnóstico.

Cecilia Cardini, General Director of Environmental Policy, Secretariat of Works and Public Services, Municipality of San Martín.

Techo (2016). “Buenos Aires”. / Retrieved from http://relevamiento. techo.org.ar/, July 2017.

Gerardo Elsesser. Environmental Analist, Municipality of San

Government.

Martín.

Trimble Data Marketplace (2017), OpenStreetMap, “Buenos Aires”. / Retrieved from https://market.trimbledata.com, July 2017. Wikimapia (2017), “Buenos Aires”. / http://wikimapia.org, Accessed on July 2017.

12. REFERENCES AND APPENDIX

CONVERSATION WITH CAROLINA CHANTRILL ESC Program Consultant Inter-American Development Bank, Argentina.

A.B: Hola Carolina. En este momento me encuentro investigando la complejidad de la cuenca del Reconquista, para luego centrarme en un sitio particular en donde pueda implementar las estrategias de diseño que defina. Sé que el BID lleva ya un buen tiempo trabajando en esta localidad, y me ayudaría mucho poder visualizar el trabajo que ya han hecho y la escala del plan.

A partir de este trabajo se preparó un programa de inversión de fondos BID con aporte local de la provincia de Buenos Aires para la ejecución de las obras prioritarias (y algunas más dependiendo de la disponibilidad de montos) y de la elaboración del plan junto con medidas de fortalecimiento institucional del COMIREC. El préstamo es el AR-L1121 y se aprobó en 2014. http://www.iadb.org/es/proyectos/project-information-page,1303. html?id=AR-L1121

C.C: Un gusto ponernos en contacto! Yo trabajé mucho en el proyecto que el BID preparó y está ejecutando en la cuenca cuando trabajaba en el Sector de Agua y Saneamiento. Hoy estoy en otra división y solo les doy apoyo en temas netamente urbanos. Te cuento un poco a grandes rasgos qué es lo que el BID ha venido haciendo y luego vemos qué más necesitas saber. Originalmente se ejecutó una Cooperación Técnica ATN/ OC-12571-AR (donación de fondos) para la realización de un estudio inicial que permitiera preparar un programa de inversión y gestión de la cuenca. Este estudio empezó en el 2010 y se finalizó en el 2012. El objetivo era hacer un primer diagnóstico ambiental, urbano, hídrico, social e institucional del área con foco en áreas preidentificadas como prioritarias, y además tenía encargado realizar los proyectos ejecutivos de obras prioritarias (colector cloacal, extensión de redes de agua potable y nexo, camino de sirga, remediación de un basural, y no recuerdo si algo más). Junto al estudio también debían elaborar los Términos de Referencia (TDR) para la eventual contratación de una firma que desarrollara el Plan de Manejo Integral Urbano Ambiental de la Cuenca. En el diagnóstico se identificaron necesidades de tratamiento y mejoramiento hidráulico del río para evitar inundaciones, se relevaron todos los basurales informales, los asentamientos informales, la necesidad de realizar un inventario de vuelcos industriales y censo de industrias, necesidades de mejoras de la vialidades, circulación y oferta de transporte público, etc. El Plan debía dar el marco para todas las intervenciones en el territorio así como las medidas no estructurales para un mejor manejo de la cuenca y la mejora de la calidad de vida de los habitantes.

El COMIREC es el organismo de cuenca que se crea bajo una ley nacional sobre los organismos y autoridades de cuenca para todo el país. El COMIREC es muy débil institucionalmente en particular no tiene capacidad ejecutiva. Sin embargo a podido implementar los mecanismos de gobernanza que permiten la participación de los 18 municipios que forman la cuenca, de la provincia y de las organizaciones de la sociedad civil de la cuenca. http://www.comirec.gba.gov.ar/

Tanto la cooperación técnica como el préstamo los podés buscar en la página del BID. En la del préstamo, bajo la solapa documentos, y bajo preparación podés encontrar documentos (que la mayoría ya están un poco desactualizados, pero son públicos) con la evaluación ambiental y social, y anexos técnicos sobre los proyectos. Lamentablemente no están públicos el diagnóstico inicial de la consultora, pero que a esta fecha ya estaría desactualizado también. A.B: ¿Cuál es el avance del préstamo? C.C: En la ejecución del préstamo se ha ido avanzando con algunos de los proyectos priorizados pero la falta de capacidad ejecutiva del COMIREC (que actúa como unidad ejecutora en parte) y de la provincia de Buenos Aires (también unidad ejecutora y acreedor del préstamo) hicieron que no haya habido muchos avances en los últimos años. Los principales proyectos son el nexo de agua potable y extensión de redes, el colector cloacal, el camino de sirga (una sección de camino de ribera), algunas cosas en gestión de residuos, intervenciones de mejoramiento de espacios públicos, y la elaboracíon del plan (esta ni se ha contratado aún).

A.B: Aún no logro encontrar datos de los eventos de inundación en el área. C.C: Hay inundaciones en la zona pero no las vas a encontrar bien documentadas. Primero que el río atraviesa 18 municipios distintos, y que es una zona muy relegada del área metropolitana de Buenos Aires. Te dejo una noticia que relata un poco la situación. http:// www.lanacion.com.ar/1903660-cuenca-rio-reconquistavida-vecinos-contaminacion-riachuelo A.B: Como no podré ir a Buenos Aires para discutir las preocupaciones específicas con las comunidades locales, estoy particularmente interesada en encontrar estudios de participación ciudadana que me permitan integrar las necesidades y opiniones de los habitantes al proyecto. C.C: Sobre participación ciudadana algo deberías encontrar sobre talleres que se hicieron en las zonas prioritarias. Sin embargo no es mucho. También debería servir de referencia los consejos consultivos del COMIREC. Sé que el municipio de San Martín ha hecho trabajos participativos con los vecinos de los barrios y asentamientos informales cercanos al río para fortalecer la resiliencia comunitaria a través de redes de vecinos, educación y capacitación, y difusión de los recursos y servicios el municipio para atender emergencias. Creo que con esto puedes iniciar alguna profundización de lo que se viene haciendo en la cuenca. Creo que si quieres acceder a mayor información o documentos del programa, va a ser necesario que contactes a gente de la unidad ejecutora o del COMIREC directamente. También podrías hacer una consulta o pedido de información formal a BIDargentina@iadb.org sobre los documentos o productos de la consultoría de la cooperación técnica o informes de diagnóstico del préstamo. Tengo bastante curiosidad para saber cómo es que has seleccionado como tema de tesis al Río Reconquista. Es bastante complejo y no hay mucha información disponible pública. Cuál es tu interés?

A.B: Mi tesis es proyectual, es decir, más que un informe es un proyecto de diseño de arquitectura del paisaje. Estoy particularmente interesada en el diseño de espacio público asociado a revitalización de ríos contaminados, insertos en planes de esta magnitud. Generalmente el plan maestro y las obras prioritarias toman muchísimos años en llevarse a cabo. Considero que el diseño de ciertos iniciativas y espacios públicos claves de menor presupuesto y de carácter más inmediato, puede ser la oportunidad de testiar las intervenciones mayores y de paso empoderar a los habitantes en su relación con el río. De este modo, cuando el proyecto final ya esté resuelto, existirá una sociedad civil más educada y activa en cuanto al manejo de residuos y a la mantención del río. Si te interesa, te comparto mi proyecto final cuando esté listo. Luego de revisar bastantes documentos repartidos por internet, aún no logro encontrar un plan maestro total y local (en la área de intervención prioritaria) que grafique la ubicación física del programa BID (la extensión de la redes de agua potable y cloacas, las áreas destinadas a espacios públicos, la ubicación exacta de los basurales saneados, etc.). Solo un video en la página de COMIREC muestra vagamente estas intervenciones. Conatctaré a ambos, COMIREC y BID Argentina, para ver si logro obtener esta información, además de posibles datos de inundaciones (si es que existen). C.C: Diste en el clavo! No hay un plan maestro. Esta es la gran falencia en la gestión de proyectos territoriales y urbanos en Argentina, y me atrevo a decir en gran parte de América Latina. Se comienzan intervenciones, y tal vez alguien en el ejecutivo tiene una idea de cómo se articula, pero no existe un plan que dé cuenta de no solo la ubicación de cada proyecto sino de cómo se articulan entre sí y como uno y otro contribuyen a una visión común. En términos de la planificación de las obras que puntualmente financia el BID hay algunos planos y mapas pero no deben ser públicos. Si quieres puedo ponerte en contacto con una arquitecta que ha trabajado mucho desde el gobierno provincial en este proyecto y tal vez tenga más información que compartirte. Yo por mi parte al estar desde el BID no podría compartir planes que son confidenciales.

12. REFERENCES AND APPENDIX

A.B: Que interesante lo que me cuentas. No puedo creer que no haya un plan maestro. Ahora entiendo la dispersión en todo lo que leo acerca del Reconquista. El plan maestro es la herramienta esencial para buscar recursos! además de articular la ejecución de proyectos, por supuesto. Feliz de que me pongas en contacto con la arquitecta que trabaja desde el gobierno provincial antes de darme por vencida en conseguir esa información. C.C: Las obras prioritarias aún no se han ejecutado. Puedo consultar a la División de Agua y Saneamiento si tienen algún mapa o plan visualizado en territorio de estas obras que puedan compartir respetando la confidencialidad. A.B: Te lo agradecería mucho. C.C: Hay unas pequeñas obras que se están pensando y se diseñarán que son de menor escala y más del tipo que tu dices. No hace mucho revisé unos Términos de Referencia para el diseño de un “corredor” o “parque lineal” de pequeña escala. El proyecto que aún no está aprobado por el Banco tiene carácter de anteproyecto. Está ubicado sobre la calle diagonal Artigas, entre las calles José Ingenieros y calle 4 Padre Carlos Mugica (futura traza del Camino de Borde). A su vez, se encuentra delimitado en un primer tramo por el muro medianero del Cementerio privado Bosque del Recuerdo, y en un segundo tramo por un frente de viviendas retirado. Sería super bueno si alguna vez tuvieras la posibilidad de venir y recorrer la zona. Creo que nadie toma una idea real de la magnitud y la complejidad del área hasta que no está en terreno. A.B: Creo que la complejidad la logro visualizar. De ahí mi elección de trabajar en un sitio menor, definiendo estrategias de diseño de espacio público que puedan ser replicables en otros sectores, en vez de ambiciosamente querer planificar el río completo. C.C: Otro tema a tener en cuenta en el diseño de espacios públicos, y es que es muy recomendable que éstos sean 68

diseñados de forman participativa con la comunidad local, en especial en comunidades muy vulnerables de bajos recursos. De lo contrario existe un riesgo muy grande de rechazo. Ésta es una fuerte opinión personal pero también un fuerte valor en la División para la que trabajo. A.B: Totalmente de acuerdo con lo que me dices. Mi tiempo de tesis es sólo de 12 semanas. Pero la lejanía (Australia) y la rapidez con que termina el semestre me obliga a tener que trabajar a la distancia. Una de las razones por la que me interesa trabajar en San Martín es el haber encontrado documentos de talleres comunitarios realizados. Y mi interés de contactarme con BID también va por ese lado, de lograr obtener información comunitaria a la distancia. De todas formas, tarde o temprano, quiero visitar el río. C.C: Ya tienes seleccionado un área de la cuenca para tu diseño? Hay varias zonas en la cuenca que son interesantes para ello. Se me ocurre que si te pudiera poner en contacto con la gente de la provincia que está trabajando en esto te podrían sugerir un área para que diseñes y que luego les compartas el trabajo para que lo consideren en su programa. A.B: Justamente estaba pensando trabajar en esa la zona de la cuenca que describes, en San Martín, pero en relación al camino de borde que uniría las villas y a los canales que desembocan en el río. Te adjunto una imagen. Es una zona interesante y compleja en donde convergen vivienda de escasos recursos, vulnerabilidad a inundaciones, canales que desembocan en el Reconquista, vertederos informales, proyecto vial de borde y la posibilidad de fortalecer corredores verdes. C.C: Qué tipo de intervención de espacio público buscas hacer? A.B: Me interesa generar programas asociados a los objetivos del plan de restauración del río; es decir, que de alguna forma, los grandes -y todavía abstractos- planes municipales y de la provincia, se visibilicen y testeen en el espacio público a una menor escala.

Por ejemplo, generar la infraestructura necesaria para educar en el manejo de basura, reciclaje, compost, fomentando sus potencialidades económicas y laborales. Una infraestructura de usos flexibles, comprendiendo que lo que uno planifica no es siempre lo que termina por suceder. Un espacio público abierto a las modificaciones que los propios habitantes vallan desarrollando en el tiempo. Otro ejemplo sería, generar áreas verdes y sistemas de bioretención que filtren parte de las aguas del canal adyacente a las viviendas, proveyendo a los habitantes con una porción de agua limpia que pueda ser reutilizada para servicios y otros fines productivos o recreativos en el mismo espacio público. Mi interés va por generear mecanismos que generen apropiación con el río y su proyecto de restauración. Que los vecinos descubran las oportunidades de la sanitización mediambiental, y por lo tanto respeten y cuiden su entorno. Te agradecería mucho que me pusieras en contacto con quienes están trabajando en el proyecto de la provincia para diseñar un área que a ellos también les sea de interés.

12. REFERENCES AND APPENDIX

CONVERSATION WITH KARINA CAMPOS Environmental Engineer Buenos Aires Province Government

A.B: Hola Karina, ¿qué tipo de obras financiaría el préstamo BID?. K.C: Calculo que vos habrás tenido acceso al contrato de préstamo, documento disponible en internet en la página del BID. Los componentes generales del préstamo se siguen manteniendo. Está por un lado el componente de gestión ambiental y social, y por otro lado el componente de gestión de residuos. También está el tema de drenaje, obras de agua, cloacas y obras viales. A.B: ¿Podrías informarme del avance a la fecha de las consultorías y obras construidas con el préstamo?. K.C: Hasta ahora ha habido una muy baja ejecución. Se tardó muchísmo en avanzar con la licitación de las obras y de las consultorías. Este es un préstamos que financia por un lado una serie de obras estructurales, y por otro lado, una serie de estudios y proyectos. La consultoría más importante es la que está encargada de hacer el plan de manejo integral de la cuenca, que es un plan que tiene que hacerce con PVC, planificación con visión compartida, con mucha integración de la comunidad. Esa licitación lamentablemente también está muy atrasada. Ni siquiera se ha contratado a la empresa para llevarlo a cabo. En relación a las obras, me parece que el camino de borde es la obra más importante, adjudicada y a punto de comenzar a ser construída. Implica el financiamiento de la construcción de todo un camino que corre paralelo al río en una de las zonas más conflictivas de la cuenca en el Municipio de San Martín. Es precisamente donde hay una serie de asentamientos informales que están a la orilla del río. Este camino va a servir como defensa para que no se siga asentando población en la planicie de inundación, y para mejorar la conectividad entre los barrios. Esa obra al principio iba a suponer el reasentamiento de varias familias, pero se modificó la traza y finalmento no hubo que reasentar. Si entras en la página de internet del Ministerio de Economía de la Provincia de Buenos Aires, están 70

publicados todo los préstamos intenacionales que tiene la provincia, y los pliegos de las obras que están en proceso licisatorio. Por lo tanto podrás encontrar el pliego de la obra del camino de borde, que pienso que es la que más te va a interesar. Como te decía, recién está empezando la ejecución. También están planificadas -y debieran de proseguir- el saneamiento de tres basurales y la construcción de una o dos plantas de tratamientos de residuos de la construcción y la demolición. Después por otro lado las obras que están en proceso de adjudicación son las obras de aguas y cloacas y de entuvamiento de algunos arroyos. Eso es todo lo que hay. A.B: ¿Cómo afecta la volatilidad política al avance del préstamo? K.C: En teoría se iban a licitar las obras relacionadas con brindar agua y cloaca, algunas obras de drenaje, pavimentación de ciertas calles y la construcción de centro de salud. Digo “se iban” porque lamentablemente la parte institucional en la provincia de Buenos Aires funciona muy debilmente. Hubo un cambio de ministro, y en este momento se están revisando toda las obras y todas las consultorías de este préstamo y de otros préstamos también. Así es que está todo en “stand by”. Lo que seguro se va a financiar es lo que ya está adjudicado o con inicio de ejecución. El resto está todo en “veremos”. Yo te puedo mandar el listado de las obras que son seguras que se van a hacer. A.B: ¿Qué otros proyectos se están revisando? K.C: Estaba contemplada la realización de un catastro de industrias para saber cuáles y cuántas son las industrias que hoy se encuentran en la cuenca, información que hoy no se tiene. En teoría iba a involucrar el censo de unas 16.000 industrias, su georreferenciación, “business inteligence” con los resultados y pasar a la digitalización de un montón de trámites. Ese proyecto también está en “veremos”.

Por otro lado había un proyecto para hacer un SMAT, sistema de monitoreo y alerta temprana, que consistía en la compra e implementación de una serie de puntos de monitoreo de calidad de agua, aire y de barros. Todo eso está también en “stand-by”. Había una consultoría que también está siendo repensada, para trabajar en lo que es gestión de residuos con los municipios. Eso es un pantallazo general de lo que se iba a financiar con el préstamo. Pero como te digo, tendrás que tomar en consideración lo que en este momento se está repensando y puede cambiar.

12. REFERENCES AND APPENDIX

CONVERSATION WITH GERARDO ELSESSER Environmental Analyst Municipality of San Martín.

G.E: Hola Antonia, te escribo de parte de Cecilia Cardini, de la municipalidad de San Martin. Ella me pidio que te pase esta info. Te la estoy por enviar.

Earth, mas algún conocimiento de campo. Por lo poco que ví no esta tan mal pero tiene zonas de más y no están completas las tablas, por lo que mucho jugo no se le puede sacar.

-Topografía - cotas de nivel -Hidrología - ríos, canales, tuberías (te aclaro que el cauce del arroyo medrano es el original actualmente entubado, pero te envio la red pluvial del partido que si la miras en detalle solapa el cauce) -Vialidad, o bien el trazado de cuadras -Macizos -Viviendas (COU x parcelas) -Uso de suelo (COU- es la zonificacion) Están generadas en Posgar 94 faja 5

Lamento no poder darte algo mas “claro”, pero bueno. Cualquier cosa me consultas y en lo que pueda ayudarte te cuento.

A.B: Gracias Gerardo. Tienes por casualidad el trazado de las vivendas de los asentamientos informales / villas? G.E: Te paso la info que conseguí pero no es mucho mas clara que la que ya tenia, asique preparate porque es un chino jajaj. No se cuanto conocimiento personal tendrás de la geografía del partido, pero en caso que sea poca, te aclaro que tomando como referencia la Avenida Brigadier Gral Rosas (190) hacia la izquierda es una zona muy dinámica en cuanto asentamientos y villas. En el resto del partido la situación es mas estática. Te comparto tres capas (con info solapada) y úsala como puedas ya que ninguna la construí yo. 1) “Asentamientos Reconquista” para mi criterio está bastante bien, faltarían manzanas. Ten en cuenta que no discrimina villas de asentamientos y solo está lo del Reconquista. 2) “Asentamientos y villas” es la capa con mayor información, yo me quedaría con esta y solaparía información del Reconquista. Lo que me pasa con esta capa es que a mi criterio hay zonas denominadas asentamientos que no lo son, pero no sé el criterio que usó el que la hizo. 3) “G01-villas y asentamientos” me la acaban de pasar pero me dicen que la hicieron en función de mirar Google 72

Y me olvidé de mandarte los antiguos rellenos sanitarios a cielo abierto de la CEAMSE (hoy en día están cerrados y son descampados). Van acá. Un comentario que quizás ya notaste es que el COU x parcelas está bien solo que hay partes del Reconquista que no existen básicamente por la instalación de villas, el Camino del Buen Ayre, etc. Lo verás bien claro solapando una imagen. A.B: Perfecto. Me queda todo muy claro. Gracias por la ayuda.