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At 27 years old, Teresa Ramírez, a young woman of Rarámuri origin from the Sierra Tarahumara of Chihuahua, has seen how the geography of her home has been disappearing. “It’s sad to go out for a walk and discover on the way that many of the hills are already bald,” says the Horticulturist Engineering student. Nothing is like before: logging has decapitated the landscapes, organized crime has appropriated land and no one washes sheets in the stream that crosses the town anymore. “There is no water anymore. Every time we walk more to get it”.
“They have devastated forests over 300 years old. Some say they have government permits, but if so, they gave too many. This aggravates the scarcity of water, because the ecosystems dry up,” says Ángela Yumil Romero, Teresa’s professor at the Autonomous University of Chihuahua. With the environmental devastation, environmental movements have also emerged to protect the mountains from urban megaprojects, but this is a struggle that in Mexico, the deadliest country for defenders of the earth, often escapes a happy ending.
Yumil has specialized in the development of sustainable businesses for vulnerable communities, and saw an opportunity in the problem of water scarcity. He thought how he could avoid wasting it. “I knew that there are endemic flowers that have purifying properties. Using them to reuse water could be a profitable idea, because we are one of the largest flower producers in Latin America,” he says in an interview with América Futura.
Along with Teresa and other students, they created a system of wetlands with ornamental flowers and circulated gray water—the one that results when we bathe, brush our teeth, or wash clothes—through them. The roots of the flowers absorb organic and inorganic matter and purify it through their leaves.
Four years, seven varieties and six experiments later they decided that the cempasuchil flower was the most suitable and the one that required the least liquid without damaging its aesthetics: “It had to maintain its value. Thus, as they grow, they could be sold and recover what was invested in the wetland”, he highlights. The resulting water not only came out clean: it allowed life. In crops, the number of pollinators and the variety of species increased.
“This completely natural phytoremediation treatment would serve to recycle water not only in homes, but also in social assistance shelters —where it has already been applied—, in orchards or even in large companies,” the professor details.
In Mexico they consume on average more than 300 liters of water per capita per day. The amount recommended for responsible consumption it’s 100. In the capital, only 10% is reused. This occurs in a country where 1 in 10 people do not have access to drinking water; in a country entrenched in historic droughts, where 70% of currents they are contaminated for industry or mining.
“On a trip I took to a ranch, a lot of the cows were down to the bone. When it doesn’t rain, the price of their food skyrockets,” says Alejandro García, one of the students who helped with the investigation. “This crisis forces us to take corrective action…or let the cows die.”
Doing it with cempasuchil flowers would also allow us to support local producers, “since we only use native seeds that they harvest,” says Yumil. In Mexico there are 35 of the 58 species of cempasúchil flower that exist in Latin America —and this year it is estimated to produce almost double than in 2021 for the Day of the Dead. However, its popularity and the growing industry of carotenoids to dye food —one of its properties— have led China and the United States to monopolize a large part of the seed market, modifying them to increase the pomposity of the flower and harming small businesses. Mexicans.
From the water crisis to the scientific one
If they had been able to continue with other phases of the investigation, they would have chosen to make the water drinkable, the interviewees agree, but they could not do so due to lack of resources. “There was no money. I paid for most of it with my doctoral scholarship and with the help of Dr. Cecilia Vallés, co-director of the project”, recalls the teacher. “We had to sell the flowers to cover expenses.”
“The project is inspiring others, but it still doesn’t get enough attention. In research, this often happens, ”she laments. “It gives the feeling that it could be too popular a solution. And is that interesting?”, suggests Alejandro.
According to Yumil, this system could be replicated by almost anyone. “It is a matter of space, rather than experience. A certain distance is required for the water to come out clean, depending on the contaminant to be removed. There is an investment at the beginning, but then returns come, because the flowers and seeds that grow in the wetlands would be sold to customers, merchants, to industries such as food or medicine… And well, have you had plants? Well, it’s the same: creating that chemistry with these living beings so that they don’t die, ”she says.
In the Sierra Tarahumara, nothing is like before. Turning the curve, there may not be a tree. Arriving at the river, the faces no longer find their reflection. Facing dispossession, necessity, its inhabitants today join forces to heal its waters, its people, the geography to which they belong. They resignify industries and ecosystems so that something can sprout from ruin and nothingness. They recompose the place they want to inhabit: their home. “It’s feeling part of the land,” concludes Teresa. “I say that who wants, can.”
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