Photo:AFP
By Patryk Krych | The World Daily | JULY 30th 2021
Due to heavy chemical pollution, a lagoon in Argentina has gone entirely pink, in a sudden and worrying manner that has left plenty of environmentalists both in and out of the country severely concerned.
The Corfo lagoon, found in Argentina's Southern Patagonia region, had turned into a very vibrant pink colour in an incident that environmental activists are blaming on a chemical often used to preserve prawns for the purposes of export. The lagoon is located close to the city of Trelew, where run-off from the fishing industry is rather common.
“Those who should be in control are the ones who authorize the poisoning of people,” said Pablo Lada, an environmental activist who believes that the country’s government is primarily to blame for this incident.
The chemical sodium sulphite is to blame for the discolouration of Corfo lagoon, according to environmental engineer and virologist Federico Restrepo. It is an anti-bacterial substance that sees wide use across fishing factories, and it’s believed that the untreated feeding of this chemical waste into Chubut river is what eventually led to the product finding itself in and contaminating the lagoon.
“Fish processing generates work... it's true. But these are multi-million-dollar profit companies that don't want to pay freight to take the waste to a treatment plant that already exists in Puerto Madryn, 35 miles away, or build a plant closer,” Lada added.
Local residents had been complaining about a foul smell emanating from the lagoon for a long time now, alongside several other environmental complaints. Activists are stating that the chemicals should, by law, have been appropriately treated before being dumped out as wastewater – and the fact that this wasn’t the case is all too concerning.
The smells and complaints from local residents about pollution had gotten so intense that in recent weeks, they had even gone out to protest by blocking the roads used by the trucks that carry the chemical waste through town. Lada added that: “We get dozens of trucks daily, the residents are getting tired of it.”
The Corfo lagoon has been this striking pink colour since last week, having remaining “abnormal” on Sunday. This isn’t the first time it has turned an abnormal colour either, having once turned fuchsia due to the regular industrial runoff.
