Buenos Aires has 60% of its limits with water if we add the Río de la Plata and the Riachuelo. Added to this is a series of streams that cross it and flow into the coasts of the City from north to south. Added to this is climate change, which brought more rain. According to data from the Buenos Aires Government, rainfall increased by 11% in the last 20 years. Therefore, the State must intervene to increase the level of runoff in the face of the most severe storm events that are coming.
In that sense, Jorge Macri’s government will announce this Tuesday a set of water works with the aim of expanding the underground network that helps drain rainwater. This is the continuity of the Hydraulic Plan that started in 2007 with Mauricio Macri’s first administration in the City. The works will benefit some 850 thousand residents.
The hydraulic network already completed, with the work of the Maldonado stream included, has some 83 kilometers of piping for the water courses that cross Buenos Aires from its bowels and that at the end of the 19th century were open to the sky.
This Tuesday, the Buenos Aires government will announce a series of works, including the comprehensive improvement of the piping of the Medrano stream to mitigate the danger of flooding in the neighborhoods of Núñez, Saavedra and Coghlan. The new pipeline will be 15 blocks long and includes five closing gates and a pumping station. In addition, land will be gained for parks at the mouth of this watercourse on the Río de la Plata in the northern part of the City in the area of Saavedra and Núñez.
Also in the northern part of the city The Sarmiento Park reservoir will be expanded. This facilitates water retention to avoid flooding in that area of northern Buenos Aires. The objective will be achieved by lowering the level of some soccer fields in the green space and will have the capacity to store about 123 thousand cubic meters of water in the event of severe storms.
Other works that They will be put out to tender to be done in a time ranging from 12 to 24 months., is the improvement in the drainage of the sub-basins of the Cildañez stream in the south of the City. This will try to avoid flooding in Flores, Parque Avellaneda and Villa Lugano. In that sense, the Buenos Aires Government assured that this area of Buenos Aires had been postponed in terms of works to mitigate the increase in rains.
In addition, another of the works will include improvements in the branches of Larralde and Ciudad de la Paz avenues, which are sub-basins of the Maldonado stream. Before the end of the year, the City Government will put out to tender these works, which will be two kilometers long. Meanwhile, extensions will also be made to the branch of Costa Rica Street for a length of 10 blocks to avoid flooding in Palermo.
On the other hand, another work is planned that will improve the quality of the water in the Silver river. This is the Bajo Costanera collector that will cross the city from north to south from the Ciudad Universitaria area to the mouth of the Riachuelo. “For this project we need the collaboration of Aysa and international financing. But when it comes to fruition, it will bring a significant improvement to the river that will even allow the development of nautical sports,” the City Government is excited.
This is a sewage sanitation conduit to be built with deep tunnels that will go from General Paz to the southern border of the City. There, it will connect with the Riachuelo sewer system that will begin operating in September of this year. The total cost of the work, including the waterfront work that still needs to find the source of investment, will be 312 million dollars.
“The cleanliness of the waters that surround Buenos Aires, Río de la Plata and Riachuelo, will make possible a greater openness of the porteños towards the coasts. This will be accompanied by public spaces that will allow them to enjoy that entire area, combined with gastronomic patios for example,” explain the Buenos Aires Government sources who advanced the hydraulic plan to Infobae.
