According to José Luis Luege Tamargo, “the Maya Train was built without any technical, economic and environmental justification.”
“The poor planning of the Federal Government to carry out the Maya Train Project could have serious consequences for the aquifer of the Yucatan Peninsula, which could even cause landslides and contamination of the cenotes”, warned José Luis Luege Tamargo, former head of the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (Semarnat).
Within the framework of International Water Day, as part of his conference “The global water crisis: Challenges and opportunities for the Peninsula”, which took place as part of the Construction Expo 2024, he considered that the Maya Train was “poorly planned” since the voices of the specialists were heard.
Luege Tamargo explained that a project of this type must consist of three important stages: conceptual engineering, basic engineering, and the executive project. If these are not well implemented, in the end, everything will turn out badly, he indicated, pointing out that the most serious thing was the violation of environmental impact.
“The Maya Train was made without any technical, economic or environmental justification; “It was done because the President ordered it and it should be a shame for Mexican politicians that supported this project,” said the specialist from the Faculty of Chemistry of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM).
In particular, Luege Tamargo considered that section 5 of the railway, which goes from Cancun to Playa del Carmen (in Quintana Roo), is an “atrocity”, since all environmental regulations were violated, as stated by several civil associations and experts from around the world.
Importance of the MIA
He recalled that when the Environmental Impact Manifesto (MIA) was presented, after having started the project, it was warned that there would be effects on the cenotes, such as landslides, and that the vibration of the railway could cause failures and collapse on the tracks.
He warned that ignoring these observations will have consequences and, in the future, that area will even have to be reforested.
He explained that the General Law of Ecological Balance has a very important article in which it is mentioned that, when doing the MIA, if a negative environmental impact is detected in a certain region, the project must be stopped.
“What was done (with the Maya Train) is truly barbaric; it will have very serious consequences, and if it affects groundwater, of course, there will be landslides, and the train would collapse at certain points of the route. The footage that the environmentalists have presented is impressive, the columns destroying the stalactites of a cavern that is a natural area, and they plan to install hundreds of those pillars, it’s insane… They must be stopped” Luege Tamargo concluded.
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