translated from Spanish: Cleaning day withdrew hundreds of kilos of plastic on the beaches of Arica after floods

With about 120 volunteers spread over two days – Saturday 9 and Sunday 10-, the Alliance of the Mexican Brewer Corona and the NGO Parley for the Oceans cleaned up the mouth of the river San Jose in Arica. The activity, which was supervised by the Seremi of health of Arica and Parinacota and the Navy, cleaned Beach La Puntilla of waste such as bottles, cans, glass, styrofoam and even chemicals, among others.
The date was not initially contemplated by the Alliance of both entities. After three months of cleanings, the organizers decided to add aim at the beach ariquena by the amount of debris that remained after the downpours of last February.
“All of this went through the water and then the sea returned it. We are seeing perhaps a percentage of everything that fell. “We don’t know what was under the sea or currents carried things towards more to the North or South”. says Santiago Balmaceda, Coordinator of Parley in Chile.
Only the first day, more than 80 volunteers, among them Nicolás Vargas, was the professional surfer and two-time national champion managed to clean about a ton and a half of garbage from the beach. Glass, styrofoam, pieces of clothing, a bicycle, a drum from China, and above all plastic bottles, were the waste collected by volunteers.

“Feel me super powerful civil society begins to convoke also.” It’s not only initiatives from the public world for activities like this. “An activity of volunteering, not only to collect plastics, but it also to reflect on the theme of how we are trying to the planet”, said the Deputy Mayor of arica, Christian Díaz, who was present at the start of the day.
After harvesting, recyclable materials will be transfers to Santiago for reuse, while those who will not go to landfills.
Trash in the river San Jose product of the altiplanic winter, the northern area was affected by unusual rains that returned him his forces to the San Jose River, which crosses Arica from the Azapa Valley, but that for much of the year is dry. In addition to the problems that caused the same rise of the River, the rains revealed another problem: extension of the river is being used as a landfill, both by the ariqueans farmers in the Azapa Valley.
“It is essential that we the ariqueans we care to clean the River before the downhill normally. People still thinking this is Weir”, says Christian Díaz. From the municipality of Arica have had to take letters on the issue through campaigns to prevent the situation.
The most recent, “by reason or fine”, is a municipal Ordinance that will ticket violators who throw trash at places and times not allowed, which is also supported by more than 50 security cameras installed last January. “If waste passes through retirement home, do not have to throw away it to the river bed for very dry to be,” said the Deputy Mayor.

Danger from pesticides the most worrying situation is the arrival of pesticides to the coasts and beaches ariquenas, dragged from the Azapa Valley by the rains. “Agricultural pesticides are, and we have been able to detect that there are some that are not labeled, and some have entered Chile illegally, because it is not allowed to use in the country”, says Rafo Vargas, President of the Organization Terra North, to sail by the sustainable progress of the community.
Vargas added that these wastes are left on the banks of the River Valley farmers, who would be using neighbouring countries for their values lower despite not being regulated in Chile. On the first day, the volunteers managed to gather about 80 kilos of containers of various chemicals and pesticides. These would only be those who were returned by the sea, while the amount that has remained in the waters is still unknown.
“We have identified two local companies: Anasac and Syngenta.” And we have others that we don’t know the origin. “There are chemical engineers will be added to well identify waste”, Vargas ends. “(The chemical remains) can be a 2 or 3 percent of the collected in total, but it can be even more harmful than all the plastic that we get” “I think this is a very good initiative, thanks to the Community interest for cooperating in different topics that have n in this case public health relevance”, said the Secretary of the Ministry of health of Arica and Parinacota, Claudia Torrealba, with regard to the event. Words similar to the of the Councillor of the commune, Patrick Dauphin, who participated in the process of cleaning throughout the first day: “at this moment the coastal edge is a garbage dump. So I applaud the private sector, and also to all the volunteers who are no longer on Saturday which is rest, family”.
Navy was also present at the event, monitoring activity and bringing in the harvest. “I think that it is a super important Community initiative, to make awareness of cleaning. Especially by the descent of the River, beach cleaning was affected”, said the second lieutenant Serin, of the captain of the port of Arica.

Original source in Spanish