Another Blow for Bogotá's Rivers

Around noon today, this truck rolled down an embankment into the Rio del Arzobispo, which flows thru the Parque Nacional and the Teusaquillo neighborhood. It's one of Bogotá's few rivers which is not hidden in a pipeline. But, like all of Bogotá's long-suffering waterways, it's smelly and polluted.

A repoter informs the world about the event. 

The fall of this half century-old truck (its driver was bruised by okay) was only the most dramatic of the many abuses against Bogotá's rivers. Many poor hillside neighborhoods lack sewage pipelines, so their waste goes right into the neighborhood rivers, which carry it into the highly polluted Rio Bogotá. The city has created repeated plans to clean up the rivers, but they get postponed and pushed back.

Ironically, on the neighboring sidewalk, someone had erected this tree carrying memorial cards for victims of traffic accidents. 

Bogotá's transit fatality rate would drop if authorities would actually enforce mechanical maintenance laws. Even more importantly, authorities should enforce laws against pollution, which must harm many more people than transit accidents.

Cards memorializing victims. 

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours