The tons of sargassum that year after year arrive to the coasts of the Mexican Caribbean are increasingly worrying because the season, which normally begins in March, now starts in January, for that reason the Riviera Maya Hotel Association has diagrammed a plan that includes the possibility of a Dutch shipping company participating in a project to collect the seaweed in the high seas.
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“The authorities are doing what they can with the (Ministry of) Navy and with the few resources that at the federal level they have budgeted for this purpose, which in a way surprises us because it is a serious environmental problem. We have seen pilot projects, we were in Amsterdam with one of the largest shipping companies in the world”, says Tony Chaves, president of the Riviera Maya Hotel Association (AHRM) and the Mexican Caribbean Hotel Council (CHCM).
In dialogue with REPORTUR.mx, Chaves points out that several national and international institutions, companies, consulates and universities have been participating for almost two years in a project to cushion the impact of the algae in the area.
“They are analyzing the sargassum that arrives to know its characteristics and thus know if it can be converted into fertilizer, bio-fuel, bio-gas, but these analyses take time,” he says.
“The AHRM is looking at the possibility of obtaining non-refundable resources for the fight against sargassum, and that is what we are working on. This year we have already made a lot of progress, logically because we already have a base of everything that is required. I believe that soon, possibly in the middle of this year, we will have very important news on this matter”, he concludes.
The Riviera Maya Hotel Association is made up of more than 100 hotels of all categories located from Puerto Morelos, through Playa del Carmen to Tulum and Punta Allen.
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