Water management, science and policy: salinization problems in Argentina as a South American study case.

GONZALEZ ACHEM, ANA LUCÍA; CICERONE, DANIEL; FERNANDEZ CIRELLI, ALICIA; GIORGI, ADONIS; SOSA GOMEZ, JOSE; HIDALGO, MARARITA DEL V.; FERNÁNDEZ, HUGO RAFAEL; ROLANDI, MARÍA LAURA

Buenos Aires Capital

Congreso; 11th SETAC Latin America Biennial Meeting; 2015

SETAC

Humans, historically have made interventions that favor the damage of ecosystems. The case of water and soil salinization is a clear example. It is watered drylands to increase production, large scale mining open pit are made or high-quality groundwater used for industrial processes and then released to superficial waters eith high salt load. Environmental sciences can help to change this reality if the interventions are not beyond the capacity of response of ecosystems, if the ecosystem services are valued ant the integrity of ecosistems protected. Possibe alternatives are presented to combine productive and systematic processes so that human interventions are tailored to each exploited environment. Otherwise, environmental science must participate together to propose and generate regulations for the protection and monitoring of aquatic environments. In Buenos Aires province, is common to detect industrial effluents that are 10 times more concentrated in salts to the receiving body. It effect varies depending on the flow in case of running water and its volume in lentic bodies orgroundwater. However, provincial laws have not incorporated minimum limits or maximum of salinity for effluents.