“After causing damage to the environment, specifically to the water table, the State Secretariat of Sustainable Development (Secretaría Estatal de Desarrollo Sustentable SDS) closed a waste water treatment plant located in southern Merida’s Cielo Alto subdivision, and imposed a fine of one million pesos”, Sayda Rodríguez Gómez, the head of the department said.
Rodríguez Gómez declared that the Secretariat does not know how many of these water treatment plants operate in this irregular situation.
Lack of water is a problem in this part of the city, and the treatment of sewage added to the irregularities, a situation that was confirmed during an inspection visit by the state agency, which generated a temporary closure, in order to stop the severe damage caused to the environment.
“The water treatment plant was malfunctioning and this is extremely bad for the water table in the zone. In fact, they are using pipes to carry out the water. And for this situation, the company will have to repair the damage and pay a penalty of one million pesos. “explained the official.
Cielo Alto is located in the southern end of the Mérida Municipality, right next to Kanasin. (Image; INEGI)
“During this inspection we decided to shut down the plant to stop the negative environmental impact and ordered to generate actions to remediate this situation, such as cleaning to ensure the natural recovery of the area,” said Rodriguez Gomez.
The head of the agency said that this problem started due to a bad operation of the plant, possibly caused by a defective pump, lack of capacity, mechanic or technical issues that led to the damage.
When questioned about how many treatment plants exist in the city and which are working properly, the official said that he ignores the answer, because it corresponds to the Board of Potable Water and Sewerage of Yucatan (Japay), to carry out that census.
However, according to information provided by Ciudadanos Hartos Civil Association (CHAC), there are 16 water treatment plants in Mérida, which only treat 1.6% of the waste water that is generated daily, and probably just a few of them are working properly.
TYT Newsroom with information from yucatanalamano.com
