CARACAS - The Venezuelan Environment Ministry is developing a new urban waste treatment plant that, once it has reached the end of its useful life, will be sealed off, and the site transformed into a green area.

The goal of the project, which is to be carried out in the central state of Aragua, is to avoid the environmental impacts of traditional garbage landfills.

The plant will have the capacity to process 1,400 tons of garbage per day, compacting it into cells that last 20 years. Once the two decades are up, the accumulated waste will serve as the foundation for a recreational space, according to the ministry's plan.

Environmentalists, however, argue that the processing plant will cause atmospheric pollution through the emissions of gases and particles, as well as posing other potential hazards, and are opposed to the project.

SAN JOSE - The National Ecologist Front (Fecon), one of Costa Rica's leading conservation organizations, warned that the government is attempting to curtail environmental requirements for its authorization of business projects.

Fecon told Tierramérica that it opposes an initiative of the National Environmental Technical Office to eliminate the environmental impact studies required of food processing companies and fuel refineries.

The government plan also calls for eliminating the Environmental Regencies, entities that monitor compliance with ecological regulations. The new looser standards "endanger this country's environment," affirms Fecon.

Government officials defend reducing requirements for companies, arguing that in some cases the regulations are bureaucratic obstacles that scare off financial investment.

LIMA - The locusts that are devastating vegetation and crops in Cajamarca and Lambayeque, two departments of Peru's northern sierra, are to be used as poultry and cattle feed, part of an Agriculture Ministry project.

"Since we were unable to control the locust plague with insecticides, or with 250 soldiers carrying flame-throwers," we will let the peasants take care of it, said Pedro Morales, a ministry official.

The project consists of setting up three small mills in the valleys suffering the plague in order to produce locust meal, which is of high nutritional value, to be used as livestock feed.

"Rural adults and children will capture the locusts" and the mills will buy them "at 60 cents per kilo. The insects will be dried in ovens, then processed in the mills," Morales explained.

RIO DE JANEIRO - A million cisterns to store rainwater are to be built in Brazil's dry northeast over the next five years.

Clean water for cooking and drinking is needed by some five million people - half the rural population of the semi-arid northeast. The region suffers the country's highest infant mortality rates, largely due to diarrhea caused by contaminated water sources.

The program, launched Nov 23 by Environment Minister Jose Sarney Filho, has the backing of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and several non-governmental organizations.

The simple system, designed by the local population, collects rainwater in igloo-shaped tanks, each costing approximately 250 dollars.

* Source: Inter Press Service