Singing to the (Polluted) Waters

Meditating beside the Rio del Arzobispo.

Today, the Day of the Waters, this group of people paid tribute with a Canto al Agua (Song to the Waters) to a particularly long-suffering waterway in the Teusaquillo neighborhood. The Rio del Arzobispo, which flows down from Bogotá's Cerros Orientales thru the Parque Nacional and west thru the city is one of Bogotá's few rivers not hidden inside a concrete pipeline. But the Arzobispo (so named because, supposedly, an Archbishop once committed suicide by leaping off of a waterfall into the river) is entombed in a cement canal. And the river carries enough sewage so that you can smell it before you see it.

Offerings to the river.

Making an offering to the river.

Environmental activist Greenman in the crowd.

In its cement bed the Rio del Arzobispo falls short on charm.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Reclaiming Our Urban Rivers?

The Rio Medelling today: Crowded by traffic and noise.

The city of Medellin recently announced that the Medellin River, which runs down the middle of the city, will be lined with green areas to create a grand recreation area. It's yet another way in which Colombia's second city seems to be leapfrogging Bogotá in liveability.

Bogotá's own Rio Bogotá, which flows north to south near the city's western edge, has long been considered an environmental, health and urbanistic disaster, thanks to its severe pollution and accompanying stench.

For decades, city leaders have talked about

The future Medellin River (Image: El Tiempo)

cleaning up the Rio Bogotá - and repeatedly delayed the plans. Cleaning the river will mean building a network of canals to collect the city's sewage and other wastewaters and carry them to treatment plants - which will cost the city a fortune.

The Rio Bogotá isn't the capital's only waterway. When the Spanish arrived here, what is now Bogotá was a wetland fed by rivers flowing down from the Cerros Orientales. Today, most of those rivers flow thru pipelines buried underground. The few exceptions, including part of the Rio del Arzobispo, which flows thru the Parque Nacional, and the Rio Negro in El Virrey Park. Even tho both those rivers flow in cement canals, they provide a bit of a break from the city, as well as an excuse for green corridors thru the city. Would it be possible to clean and uncover more of Bogotá's rivers? How about restoring some to a condition closer to nature?

A fantasy? A woman studies an image of the supposed future of the Rio Bogotá, lined by trees and green areas - and presumably cleaned of chemicals and sewage.

The Tequendama Falls south of Bogotá may look pretty, but often smell terrible. (Photo: Wikipedia) 

Two views of a river flowing thru a cement canal near the Restrepo neighborhood. 

The flooded Rio Arzobispo flows thru the Parque Nacional.

Outside the park, the Rio del Arzobispo is bordered by a narrow green strip - at least it's visible. 

The Rio del Arzobispo disappears into a pipe, never to be seen again. 



The Rio Bogotá near Engativa. (Photo: Wikipedia)

 By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Bogotá's Forgotten Bridges

The Puente Boyaca, visible along the Eje Ambiental.

Have you seen them?
Bogotá's Rivers. 

We've heard lots recently about the demolition and planned replacement of Seventh Ave.'s bridge over 26th St., which has meant pedestrianization of part of Seventh Ave. as well as huge traffic jams in central Bogotá.

Along the Eje Ambiental,
pools represent the Rio San Francisco
which flows in a pipeline below ground. 

But Bogotá also has a historical patrimony of bridges, altho almost all of them are now buried underground.

When the Spanish first arrived in Bogotá the city was predominantly seasonal wetlands, with rivers flowing down from the Eastern Hills and spreading out across the savannah.

The Rio San Francisco, visible
behind the Quinta de Bolivar. 

Over the centuries, the Spanish and later the Colombians built bridges across those rivers. Today, with most of those rivers buried under cement and asphalt, those bridges have disappeared as well. About the only old bridge visible today is the Puente Boyaca, (renamed from Las Aguas in 1905) and now partially uncovered on the Eje Ambiental, near the Las Aguas Church (and the Spanish-Colombian Cultural Center, whose construction never gets going).

A map near the Puente Boyaca
shows locations of historic
bridges, now buried under asphalt.

Today, the Rio San Francisco is alsopaved over except for its upper reaches, and represented by a string of pools down the avenue's center.

But, once the river had 18 major bridges, a map says, across which Bogotanos traveled between La Candelaria - then most of the city - and the city's north.

Last year, during construction of the new TransMilenio line along Carrera 10, workers uncovered walls belonging to an old bridge which spanned the Rio San Agustin near the avenue's intersection with 6th St. The old bridges are considered historical and architectural landmarks, despite their invisbility, and so the TransMilenio designs were altered so as not to disturb the old brickwork. I visited the site, where the Bicentenario Station and a ramp interchange are being built, and could see no sign of the old bridge. The men working on the project knew nothing about it either.

A homeless person's campsite
alongside the Rio San Francisco. 

One of the few rivers still exposed, albeit in a canal, is the Rio Arzobispo, which runs thru the Parque Nacional and the Teusaquillo neighborhood. Like the other rivers, tho, the Arzobispo (said to be named for an archbishop who committed suicide by leaping over one of its waterfalls during the 1800s) reeks from pollution drained into it by illegal hillside homes and homeless people who live under its bridges.

The Bicentenario TransMilenio station. Workers doing excavations here found walls from an old bridge spanning the Rio San Agustin. 

Rivers still flow down from Bogotá's eastern hills - but now flow underground. 

The Rio Arzobispo runs in a canal, but at least you can see it. 

Women cover their noses while crossing a bridge over the Rio Arzobispo. Notice the signs on the bridge prohibiting defecation and urination. 

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours