BOGOTA, COLUMBIA – The Bogotá river crosses 47 municipalities in Colombia, including the capital of the country, which has about 9 million inhabitants. Throughout its 380 kilometers of route, 97% is contaminated and more than 270 tons of solid waste arrive monthly at the WWTP Salitre waste-water treatment plant, and many more of all kinds of garbage that are thrown at it. Microwaves, sofas, tables, decorative objects, toys, beds and appliances are some examples of what can be found.
For the citizens, factories are often responsible for the pollution, but the elements found on the riverbank show that the problem is another. How to reflect that panorama and thus sensitize people?
With the creative support of McCann Worldgroup Colombia, Banco de Bogotá in partnership with #GrupoRíoBogotá announced the launch of an innovative project to raise awareness about how citizens are littering it, how they can avoid it and help to rescue it.
Thanks to this pact, which seeks to protect and enhance the basin ecosystem, the campaign shows an apartment furnished with some of the waste that is found daily in Bogotá. Taking into account that they are enough to furnish a home or even an entire condominium, Apartamentos El Río emerged, a construction that brings together some of the elements deposited in the tributary in order to recover and change the future of this stream.
This exhibition has on-site visits for the media and influencers during a month, complying with all biosafety protocols. The initiative also has a virtual tour at www.apartamentoselrio.com that allows not only to appreciate the kind of everyday things that end up in the flow, but it also has tutorials to learn how to properly separate garbage, to dispose of electronic items properly and tips to prevent this contamination.
Juan Gómez, Strategy Manager of Banco de Bogotá stated “who did not know that the Bogotá river is the most polluted river in the country? Who was surprised or sensitized by this reality? The first question had a positive answer, the second not so much. We had to change that, we had to put the problem in a familiar language so that people could make it tangible and feel it. A ton of garbage sounds like anything else, but a washing machine, a mattress, a refrigerator, enough to furnish an entire residential complex, sounds like a big problem. A problem that by this action the Bank shows that it is committed to solving it.”
The creatives of the campaign, Diana Triana (Creative General Director of MW Colombia), Jairo Restrepo and Eduardo Quirós, added that “for us this initiative explores a new way of communicating and raising awareness about a problem that has existed for years. We have been ignoring the garbage that has come from our homes for a long time, it is time to bring some of it back home to remind us how we should treat it.”
