CHALCO (AP).— As Juana Salazar Segundo walked through her house in Chalco, a popular suburb southeast of Mexico City, she remembered how the black, stinking water had reached her navel after the floods at the beginning of last month.
Now, with the water up to her ankles, Juana entered her unfurnished bedroom, where a water pump hummed in the corner. Large black spots dotted what were once white walls.
Floods, mixed with sewage, invaded streets, homes and businesses in Culturas, Juana Salazar’s neighborhood in Chalco, for more than a month. This low-lying area, on the shores of what was once a lake, has long suffered from seasonal flooding, but residents say this year was worse due to a combination of uncontrolled population growth and poor infrastructure.
According to the Chalco government, more than 2,000 homes and more than 7,000 residents have been affected. In some areas, the water reached a depth of up to 1.6 meters.
In recent weeks, Juana Salazar, 56, has used four bilge pumps that run all day to remove water from her house. His hands and legs are dyed black and gray from contact with contaminated water.
“Day and night we did not sleep, (the water) rose and rose,” Juana said.
“But I have been telling them for years that the drainage is collapsed,” he said. “All these days I have not been able to work to take care of my things, which are going to spoil. “My daughter has not taken the child to school… We are surviving,” he commented.
Omar Arellano-Aguilar, a biologist and expert in environmental toxicology at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, noted that the combination of drainage failures and the geological structure of the area make it more vulnerable to flooding.
“All these urban areas grew in a disorderly manner in the last 50 years,” he added.
With more than 400,000 inhabitants, since the late 1980s Chalco has grown to become one of the largest cities in the State of Mexico, but it still lacks basic water and electricity infrastructure.
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador downplayed the crisis in Chalco and indicated that he will not visit the affected area.
“It’s being taken care of,” he said during one of his daily news conferences last month. “It’s the same because I didn’t go to Acapulco at the time,” he added, referring to the days after the powerful hurricane “Otis” passed along the coast of Guerrero, where it caused at least 48 deaths.
“It’s vulture season,” he said about the press that asked him about the matter.
For her part, the state governor, Delfina Gómez, visited the affected neighborhood a few times. Neither Delfina nor the Chalco city council responded to interview requests from The Associated Press.
Local, state and federal officials have worked in the area, using large pumps to lower the water level, vaccinating residents and providing them with drinking water.
Outside Juana Salazar’s house, the sun beat down on the neighborhood as the acidic smell of sewage and silt spread for miles.
A block away, Óscar Martínez Hinojosa, 49, was adjusting the hose of one of his water extraction pumps.
He said that, when the floods began, the government did not give them boots or protective clothing, or even food, “and they were asked for it.”
Martínez lives with the five members of his family crammed into a room on the upper floor, where there is no damage. Downstairs, in the patio and in other rooms, the water reaches ankles.
Health problems
Another resident, Guadalupe Sarai Islas García, 32, indicated that health problems have increased due to wastewater. Her baby was vomiting and having diarrhea for more than a week due to the persistence of the floods.
“No authority knows what it is like to live in this,” he said. “They come home, take a bath, have dinner in peace and sleep without any worry.”
When her house flooded weeks ago, Guadalupe sent her children with her mother so they wouldn’t be exposed to more dirt. Other residents have taken similar precautions and have even started renting rooms in neighboring Ciudad Nezahualcóyotl.
However, the dozens of state and local government trucks lining Chalco’s main street, pumping tons of water, have helped reduce its level. Residents who have succeeded now clear debris and silt from their homes.
As of last weekend, authorities reported that there were no flooded streets left and that they had removed 245 tons of mud. In addition, they extracted one million cubic meters of water and have begun to clean and disinfect 28 affected streets, they added.
At an elementary school located at the main confluence, its director, María Luisa Molina Ávila, said she was optimistic about the latest renovations they had made to the campus after the damage caused by the flood in the center. The floods delayed the start of the school year for thousands of students for two weeks.
“This is like a roller coaster, but right now, fortunately, many of the streets are already dry,” he said. Together with their two children they drained, swept and cleaned the school to prepare it for the arrival of the students.
“It is a respite for the children (to return to school),” he added.
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2024-10-04 05:23:35
