Dock Sud is not supposed to be on the map.
But just outside the first belt of the Capital Buenos Aires, there it is.Dock Sud has one entrance and one exit. The only vehicles allowed inside are the 5550 lorries carrying petrol, pharmaceutical waste and toxic chemicals to the port to be disposed of. Dock Sud is considered one of the most chemically contaminated places on Earth.
Constructed more than 80 years ago, it contains around 50 industrial establishments, including two petrol refineries, 8 petrol storage depots, a thermoelectric power station, a chemical incineration plant, and a plant which combines and compresses all the chemical waste from the area to make a highly radioactive substance called “coke”.
These activities have meant that Dock Sud and its neighbouring towns have begun to suffer serious health problems from contaminants in the air; a situation that not only puts into risk the health of its 38,977 inhabitants, but for the 3000 people who actually live within a 20 metre radius of the plants mentioned above. The daily emissions of contaminants produce chronic illnesses in the population. Out of the 3000 people who live in Dock Sud, 50 % are children, and in the results of an epidemiology study done in 2001 by JICA, 50% of children showed effects of lead poisoning, especially neurological effects, such as hyperactivity, low IQ and anxiety. Every child was given a toxicology report – because every child was or has been affected since the only studies which have been done by Greenpeace,which elaborated a report published in 2001.
The people of the Dock are asking for help. They ask to be given back their most basic human rights: to drink clean water and to breath pure air. They ask to stop the silent genocide of Dock Sud.