Argentina: thousands protest in Mendoza wine region over axed water protections

Source: The Guardian

Argentina: thousands protest in Mendoza wine region over axed water protections

Law kept mining projects out of Argentina province – now water for wine-growers will be threatened in drought-stricken area

Uki Goñi in Buenos Aires
Mon 23 Dec 2019 18.17 GMT
Last modified on Mon 23 Dec 2019 20.08 GMT

Argentina’s wine-growing province of Mendoza, renown for its inky red Malbec varietal, has erupted in protest against the surprise overturning of a 2007 water protection law that had successfully kept water-intensive mining projects out of the province.

Thousands of people joined demonstrations on Monday outside the office of provincial governor Rodolfo Suarez in the capital city, also called Mendoza, after he overturned the law, known as 7722 late last week.

The peaceful protest turned violent on Monday afternoon, as police fired rubber bullets and tear gas into the crowd in response to stone-throwing by angry demonstrators.

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Suarez further infuriated the protestors on Sunday, when he announced19 uranium, cooper, gold, lead, silver, zinc, and iron mining projects. He argued that the projects will create tens of thousands of new jobs, and promised to use royalties for new irrigation projects.

But environmentalists warned that the mega-projects could threaten water sources that farmers and wine-growers depend on, in a semi-arid province which is already going through the worst drought in its history.

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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/dec/23/argentina-mendoza-protests-water-protection-law