Within the framework of World Urban Planning Day, commemorated yesterday Friday, a study reveals that Mérida occupies the penultimate place of the 17 Mexican cities with more than one million inhabitants in Environmental Competitiveness, that is, it has a high lag in sustainable development.
The Mexican Institute for Competitiveness (IMCO) reported this in its 2023 Urban Competitiveness Index report, which evaluated 66 cities in Mexico and the Yucatecan Executive and Legislative powers themselves. When citing this study in the Metropolitan Coordination Law, Regional Development and Intermunicipal Association of Yucatán, enacted in 2024, the IMCO cited this study.
“The excessive growth of the urban area and the disorderly growth towards the peripheries in the city of Mérida causes a high population density, a situation that limits access to urban mobility, considering the city’s surface, its communication routes, and means of transportation. Public transportation”, recognizes the government of Yucatán in this legislation.
According to the federal government’s “Metropolis of Mexico in 2020” report, Mérida’s population grew at an average annual rate of 1.9% from 2010 to 2020 (after growing 1.6% from 2000 to 2010) and has an average urban density of 57 inhabitants per hectare, exceeding the average of the country’s metropolitan areas (50.1).
The IMCO points out that the 15 most populated Mexican cities that surpass Mérida in environmental.
Every November 8, the United Nations (UN) commemorates World Urban Planning Day to raise awareness among public decision-makers about the importance of urban planning to improve the quality of life in cities, says the Inter-American Bank of Development (IDB).
In Mérida, according to the 2021-2024 Urban Development Plan, transportation generates 71% of greenhouse gases and is followed by the energy sector, with 21%, and waste, with 8%.
Furthermore, the City Council itself recognizes that in Mérida the discharge of waste and contaminated water is frequent, which impacts the underground aquifer.
In Mexico, according to the IMCO, of the 17 cities with more than one million inhabitants, only Cuernavaca has a worse performance than Mérida in Environmental Competitiveness.
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