The Government of Uruguay approved in 2006 the building of two pulp mills in the city of Fray Bentos, along a bank of the Uruguay River. The first was to be managed by the Finnish company Metsa Botnia, while the Spanish ENCE had planned to build a second plant near the Finnish one but later announced it was studying plans to set up a site in Conchillas, the south-west region of Colonia, Uruguay. The activities started in 2007. The two mills were expected to produce up to 2 million tons of cellulose pulp per year, threatening the surrounding area with becoming one of the most polluted territories in Uruguay. On the Argentine bank of the river is the town of Gualeguaychu, crossed by the Gualeguaychu River, a tributary of the Uruguay River, and which would suffer the direct consequences of any pollution provoked by the two pulp mills’ activities. The construction of the pulp mills was strongly opposed by the Uruguayan and Argentinean people. The bridge between Argentina and Uruguay at Gualeguaychu was closed down several years by the citizens movement on the Argentine side which is articulated by the Citizens Environmentalist Assembly of Gualeguaych. The collective was founded in April 2005 and its mobilization is still ongoing.