I live in La Plata, the beautiful capital of the province of Buenos Aires, which has adopted me since my college years. These last few rainy days, we all felt a painful “déjà vu”. Eleven years ago, April 2nd 2013, the city suffered severe flooding that caused many lives. Roads turned into rivers that poured into homes, corpses floating, submerged cars, trapped drivers, fallen trees and power lines, residents who lost literally everything, a catastrophe that could have been prevented and avoided. It goes without saying that the city didn’t and still doesn’t have an efficient draining system. Failures in maintaining infrastructure are completely obvious. The climate is clearly changing due to global warming, which leads to intensity and frequency of these heavy storms. Our local authorities must do something about it and rise to the occasion. It’s high time, guys. We pay taxes, don’t we? A matter of life and death. Praying is not enough …
Buenos Aires Times, March 23, 2024