The neighbors who demonstrated for six days over the contaminated water in the Benito Juárez mayor's office held the sit-in on Avenida Insurgentes this Sunday. In turn, the neighborhood committee has announced a collective lawsuit against the Government that will be formalized in the coming days. “We raised the protest in physical space but we did not stop defending our rights,” said Cristina Montemayor, spokesperson for the neighborhood committee in defense of water.
More than two weeks have passed since the first people affected reported a strong smell of fuel in the water in their homes, a strange taste and skin reactions. The Government of Mexico City took more than a week to agree with them. Currently more than 400 people have reported problems with the supply to their homes. On Monday, April 8, the head of Government, Martí Batres, recognized the presence of oils and lubricants in the water of some neighborhoods. Around 440,000 people live in Benito Juárez and more than a million come to work every day from other parts of the capital and the State of Mexico.
Full of desperation and indignation, on April 9, dozens of residents cut off one of the main arteries of the capital to show their exhaustion. They wanted the authorities to stop ignoring them and a meeting with the coordinator of the municipal water system (Sacmex), but above all they wanted answers. Answers that have arrived in dribs and drabs or that, to this day, remain unknown. Such as, for example, what contaminant is in the water or what is the source from which the contamination comes.
In a race against time, the capital's government has coordinated efforts with the federal government to stop the crisis. On April 10, the National Guard, Sacmex and the Civil Protection Secretariat closed and emptied a well in the Alfonso XIII neighborhood, in the Álvaro Obregón mayor's office, where the contamination supposedly came from. Since this Sunday, the National Guard guards the other three wells that officially supply Benito Juárez: Miraflores, Jardín Pombo and Rosendo Arnáiz.
Despite everything, many neighbors continue to insist that the water is still contaminated. Batres has commented that they estimate that the contamination will disappear in two weeks, when the contaminant loses strength or is carried away by the current.
Meanwhile, the Government of the capital has installed two command posts from which to collect citizen complaints, coordinate the washing of cisterns and the supply of water with pipes. The Army has installed two water treatment plants in the San Lorenzo park, in the Tlacoquemécatl neighborhood, and the Navy, another one, in the Alfonso Esparza Oteo park, in the Nápoles neighborhood.
Batres explained this weekend at a press conference that several hypotheses are being considered in the investigation into water contamination. “Possibilities are being ruled out through the corresponding technical investigation, and this technical investigation will continue to be carried out, Pemex helps us and there are other areas that are helping this investigation that will continue,” said the politician. Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) has entered into the investigation to determine if any of its facilities – a pipeline is located 500 meters from the well – is related, because the substance could be a petroleum derivative.
“We are going to continue asking the neighbors to support us because it is an issue that concerns us all,” they say from the neighborhood committee. “We have no electoral motivations, from the first moment our interest has been to alert the authorities so that they respond and comply with their obligations. We believe in the right of citizens to know the truth,” added Montemayor.
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