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Osvaldo Bonino
The international road to Chile is permanently submerged.
© WWF / Pikielny
Osvaldo was born on 28 February 1968 in Rufino, Argentina. Rufino is the nearest city to Aarón Castellanos where Osvaldo has lived all his life. His father worked as a railway worker and his mother is a housewife. Oswaldo, a technical analyst programmer, is married and has three children.
The province of Santa Fe belongs to the region of La Pampa where the land is very flat and mainly used for agriculture and farming. It is the home of the gaucho.
Due to increased rainfall during the last 7 years the La Picasa lagoon spread from 10,000 to 30,000 hectares, (and was at 50,000 hectares at its peak) which washed away many farms, crops and homes. Many members of the community have had to adapt to the change by switching from farming and agriculture to fishing.
In 2003, Osvaldo Bonino was elected Head of the District of Castellanos. He recounts:
"Aarón Castellanos, in the southern part of Santa Fe, was founded at the end of the 19th Century. It is a small town of only 300 inhabitants. But, of course, before La Picasa lagoon's rise, Castellanos had more than 600. We are part of the famous Argentinean Pampas: the place of the endless grasslands, the home of the gaucho and, thus, it was always a rural area."
Farms, crops and homes washed away by the growing lagoon
"Around these regions, it has always rained, but always the necessary amount. In one year, it usually rains between 800 or 900 millimeters. However, in the last years, it has rained between 1.000 and 1.200 millimeters. La Picasa lagoon used to cover around 10.000 hectaresbut by 2004 had tripled its surface.
When the lagoon started to grow, in 1997, people thought it was temporary. Around these regions, it's natural to see how lagoons grow in certain seasons of the year; but they always go back to their natural size. We thought that this was going to be the case. So we waited -- but La Picasa lagoon never reduced. It kept on growing and growing until it flooded all our fields, our homes, our production. The water took away what always has characterized this region: agriculture and farming.
With a surface of the lagoon of more than 30,000 hectares, people have to think what to do in order to subsist. Many dedicated themselves to fishing. Others, like the landowners, claim a fair compensation for the loss of their lands from the government, which they will probably never recover because the lagoon is not coming back to its natural size.
The lagoon has shrunk considerably because of drainage measures and a year of slightly less rain. But the road to Chile is still flooded and the lagoon has to be circumvented by a makeshift carriage way. And the land that was inundated will take a long time to recover agricultural value -- if the lagoon remains smaller."
We want to regain our pampas
"This district is a zone where people pass through. The only thing that connects us with the rest of Argentina is the national route 7, which crosses Castellanos town and goes to Mendoza and then Chile. We also had the railway but not anymore. For almost seven years, both the national route 7 and the railway have been flooded. Only the ones who remember us, come to Aarón Castellanos.
We hope that CO2 emissions are cut and that the governments do something to avoid things to get worse. We want to regain our Pampas."
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