On the second day of the Road to Río+20 seminar, senator Norma Morandini affirmed that there is still no “strong commitment” within the Legislative Branch to deal with environmental issues, and told the BuenosAiresHerald.com that she hopes “citizens will get more involved in these issues so as to avoid having to turn to the judiciary.”
The Vice-President of the Environment and Sustainable Development Committee of the Upper House of Congress reported that she had participated in the Río 1992 Summit as a foreign correspondent and stated that it had not only triggered the concept of sustainable development, but it also helped conclude that the future wars were going to be for the water.
“It seemed like a contradiction that if we knew that the future wars were going to be because of the water, then why didn’t politicians work to prevent this and organize in anticipation to avoid a war over this limited resource?”
Regarding the environmental issues in Argentina, Morandini said that there is no legislative problem, but that “we are seriously in debt with those things that we have not applied, for example, the environment annual report that we should have received since 2003.” She then explained that everyone should make use of their right to information, meaning that people should be able to get information about the works on the environment and sustainable development.
She also referred to the Glacier Law by saying that it was a paradigmatic law that was firstly vetoed by President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and, even though it was afterwards approved, “it seems like there’s a veto in disguise, because the regulations have been delayed.”
Morandini stated that the “Damocles Sword” of the Río+20 is going to be the poverty, “and the fact that we can include poverty is a consequence of not only the sustainable development, but also due to the tension that developing countries are going through due to the extortion received by the economic interests of an alleged menace to the development.”
Nevertheless, she highlighted the importance of the active participation of the population “because they are the only ones who can contrast with the pressure of lobbies.” The Senator also called for the population to work with the Legislative branch to avoid having to turn to the Judicial branch whenever there is a problem to solve about environmental matters.
“Citizens have the power to participate and if they increase their participation, they will continue to be heard by the government and they will have less chances of making mistakes,” Morandini assured.
Source: Buenos Aires Herald