Scouting Buenos Aires

The drainage system here can handle rainfall of up to 30mm per hour.   When it really pours, this happens:

In February of this year (2010) a man with a motorboat could be hired to cross Santa Fe, one of the main thoroughfares of Venice Aires.

Solving the water problem in a flat city was one of the major public work achievements of the 19th century.  In 1869 a network of potable water supply from the Río de la Plata combined with the development of in-home sewage pipes, grey water gutters and canals to discharge the still water breeding grounds for mosquitoes that were causing a yellow fever epidemic. After these two systems were in place, the death rate in Buenos Aires dropped in half.  During a period of massive immigration.  Incredible.

The most recent drainage project ended around the same time the city population leveled out at around 3 million people.  That was in 1947.  Since then, roads have been paved, green spaces were swapped for high rises, and climate change indicates a growing trend in rainfall.  The cute 10cm canals that run along most side streets need to be linked with underground tunnels to handle a much higher capacity of waterflow.  Unfortunately, not only can this not fit in the budget, the existing budget for drainage maintenance has not been utilized:

“Y y acá hay un problema político: las empresas que prestan el servicio de limpieza de sumideros tienen su contratos vencidos desde 2008.  Encima, el año pasado hubo una subejecución presupuestaria del 25 por ciento para esta tarea”, denunció el diputado porteño.” (Clarin, 26 February 2010)

Rather than burdening the city with an expensive improvement to the drainage system, Macri is unveiling an exciting plan to reduce the production of piss and shit.  In his favor: garlic saturation in pizza is high enough to act as a dietary antibiotic, and the toilet paper is so rough that 14% of the population is already surviving without an asshole.