Sewage failures plague popular tourist locales
MEXICO CITY — Sewage breakdowns in Mexico City’s “floating gardens” of Xochimilco and in the country’s Yucatan peninsula resort of Isla Holbox have officials warning of threats to residents and tourism.
Holbox’s sewage problem hit the pages of major Mexican newspapers last week just as a report was released on the capital’s own waste issues, making it clear neither is a an isolated event.
Mexico has a poor track record of sewage treatment nationwide, but Holbox’s mayor said the situation is critical on the island, whose emerald waters are home to flamingos and whale sharks.
“On every street corner, there is a small sewer cistern,” said Emilio Jimenez, mayor of the township of Lazaro Cardenas, which includes Holbox. “Right now, these are overflowing, and the liquid spilling out is urine. Of 81 cisterns, 21 are failing.”
Local media reported fecal material is building up in the swampy ground around Holbox’s failing sewage treatment plant. A video shows men in tall rubber boots trudging through the jungle, water filled with feces up to their knees.
The treatment system was built 15 years ago to serve 800 people and is not equipped to handle the influx of hotels, tourists and new residents that have flocked to the tiny island off Yucatan. It now has 3,000 residents and welcomes about half that number of tourists during peak periods.
“The sewage treatment plant is working at 20, 30 percent of capacity. It is very old, very damaged,” Jimenez said. “The toilets in residents’ homes are back-flowing, spewing out.”
While less visible, a similar problem is affecting Xochimilco’s “floating gardens,” according to a report released Thursday. A UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Mexico City district is a series of canals and agricultural plots built by the Aztecs on floating beds of reeds, tree roots and soil.
The report by the Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana in collaboration with local civic group Controla tu Gobierno indicates that most of the water being fed into Xochimilco’s canals from the Cerro de la Estrella water treatment plant contains “a high level of fecal coliform that indicate sewage.”
The report said authorities should consider stopping the flow of treated water into the canals because their waters are used to irrigate vegetable gardens.
Many Xochimilco farmers have already switched from growing vegetables to planting flowers because soil is contaminated from the murky waters.