" Now I have regained hope that you can but what do against pollution " said Soledad, a 22-year-old radio journalist from Jaén has given hope her encounter with a man who radiates with his face what he says. Alejandro Córdova, farmers, almost 70 years old, 6 children, from the small village San Antonio high up being hit on the heights of the Rimac valley.
Alejandro Córdova I have when I was using 12 radio journalists from all over Peru in Lima in a course on environmental journalism, "took part, started up the valley of the Rimac. From 0 to 5,000 feet, within no time 4 hours - this variety of climatic zones in such a short time, must imitate another country Peru for now. Unfortunately makes the Rimac Peru less honor. He is one of the most polluted rivers in the country. The glacier at 5000 meters always go back more, but we could see the swirl surrounding mines and heavy metals that pollute the streams - the same rivers that flow 160 kilometers below the sea as the Rimac.
Alejandro Córdova we meet in the middle of the road in the village of San Mateo, at 3200 meters altitude. "The Rimac is the most important "." He says, as we meet him in town hall "flow throughout Peru Finally, it supplies a third of all Peruvians with water - because a third live in the capital, Lima Alejandro tells how even in his ancestors to the relationships of nature. the different climate zones knew and how he made this knowledge alive today receives. "At 4,500 meters altitude, you can grow an old type of grass so that soil erosion is stopped." His eyes light up when he talks about his eco-experiments and that its products have been certified by Biolatina as organic products.
Through the years of mining, as well as the industries that run their sewage into the river, is part of the entire river has contaminated a lot of ground. A solution, Alejandro Cordova, will be found only when working together the various affected municipalities and provinces in order to clean up their river. This is in Peru has not been the case. The political powers do not take the natural laws - so that there would be a river, a competent authority. This is exactly what the uses Alejandro Córdova. As residents of San Mateo, he can point to a unique history: already in 1934 the farmers of San Mateo were protesting against a local Erzausbeutung because the overburden made their animals sick. The protest by the peasants at that time ended in a hail of bullets of the called Soldiers. San Mateo 4 inhabitants died.
For a few years of their death in San Mateo is celebrated as a local memorial day. And also the more recent history is thought of in this century: the children of a district complained since 2002, multiple complaints, because they grew up next to a tailings disposal site. Measurements showed high lead levels in Blug, and pollutants coming from the adjacent spoil pile. No one wanted to show responsible for the removal of toxic Tailing - to the residents of San Mateo, on behalf of their children, before the Inter-American Court in Costa Rica covered. The was called to the Peruvian State to eliminate the toxic waste - now grow on the former toxic waste dump again Grass and flowers tentative.
Alejandro Cordova believes that the use of a decent life and respect the natural environment pays off - just this belief he exudes, and thus our journalism students taught more than 10 university professors together.
