“There is huachicol and they don’t know where it is,” say PAN deputies about contaminated water

MEXICO CITY (apro).– “There is huachicol and they don’t know where it is,” said the PAN legislators who went to the closed drinking water well in Alfonso XII Park, in Álvaro Obregón, from where they evidenced the lack of credibility in the statements that made the head of Government, Martí Batres, about the contaminated water that residents of at least nine neighborhoods in the Benito Juárez mayor’s office reported in their homes.

“We are going to demonstrate the Batresgate“, the members of the PAN parliamentary group warned this Wednesday, in front of the well that is indicated by the capital authorities as the source of contamination of the water that is supplied through the water network to the affected district.

Deputy Federico Chávez Semerena considered that the current administration is hiding information about the problem: “There is something they are hiding from us and there is something they do not want to tell us, and they are simply using political tricks to deceive citizens.”

He added: “Why did Mr. Martí Batres come out and say that there was no chemical that was used for fuel and now they say that it is contaminated and that is why this operation?”

Chávez Semerena shared that the independent civil initiative CartoCrítica has mapped the network of historical huachicol points in the capital: “They say that in the case of Álvaro Obregón two huachicol points were identified in Santa Lucía, almost on the corner with the Rosa Blanca extension.”

And he considered: “What is happening is that the water leaves here towards Benito Juárez and in one of the branches it crosses with a huachicol that has been identified since 2015 and that is connecting with the water, which is hiding the Government of the city is that there is huachicol and that they do not know where it is and that is why the water is only being contaminated.”

Then, the PAN member posed the following questions:

• “Was there no security in this well so that it could be contaminated?”
• “How much gasoline, how much diesel, how much must have been put in for the Benito Juárez neighborhoods to be contaminated for so long?”
• “If they have so much technology in C2 (Command and Control Center) to see who goes up, who goes down, where the criminals go, couldn’t they realize who there was someone who was contaminating the well?”
• “Where does this well take the water to? We know that it brings water to Álvaro Obregón, Miguel Hidalgo and Benito Juárez, why is it only in Benito Juárez that these issues of the smell of gasoline are occurring?”

For her part, representative Luisa Gutiérrez Ureña stated: “There were 10 days of inaction, where it even got to the point that Sacmex (Mexico City Water System) blamed the neighbors for the lack of cleaning their water tanks.” “It seems that the head of Government takes a situation of such seriousness very lightly.”

The residents of Benito Juárez are worried.@luisag_urena y @FedeChavezMX They accompanied one of them to the Alfonso XIII Well, contaminated with hydrocarbons. We demand that the Government of Mexico City stop lying. pic.twitter.com/BCjlIgFYZF
— Deputies in Action (@GPPANCDMX) April 11, 2024

On the night of April 9, elements of the National Guard (GN), Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) and the Secretariat of Comprehensive Risk Management and Civil Protection (SGIRyPC) guarded the Alfonso XII Park well.

“The Government of Mexico City reports that the point where the water problem reported by residents to the west of the Benito Juárez mayor’s office originated was identified and closed. Within the framework of these findings, a water well was closed in Álvaro Obregón, which only supplied Benito Juárez,” Batres shared on his X account, after the media reported the securing of the water source. .

However, as shared by the deputies who went to the well, the inhabitants of the affected neighborhoods also consider that the capital’s president’s statements lack credibility.

Residents refuse to pay water bill

At the conference offered by the PAN members, José Luis Maya, a resident of the Del Valle neighborhood, appeared and declared: “The owner of the water is Sacmex, and Sacmex is the one that has to face us, who has not wanted to give us The face is the coordinator (Rafael Carmona) of Sacmex, who has to tell us what is going to happen, not that they are just making us dizzy with simple data.”

Maya helped organize the neighbors who demonstrated to demand a solution to water pollution on Wednesday night on Insurgentes Avenue, near the La Piedad Metrobús station.

This Wednesday, accompanied by legislators, he stated that the water continues to come out of the pipes contaminated: “These light, quick solutions that close a well are not solving the root problem (…) for me It is very clear, the authorities have to approach us to be able to support us.”

In an interview with Proceso, José Luis Maya warned that based on the situation faced by the inhabitants of Benito Juárez, they are not willing to pay the water bill corresponding to this period: “We cannot give up and the best ways are to block until “They pay attention to us, they don’t pay attention to us, the next step is the non-payment of bills, the next issue, bigger blockages on the Periférico, Viaduct, going to the Airport, whatever is necessary.”

The citizen said that it was a negligent act on the part of Batres to have declared, when the neighborhood reports began a week and a half ago, that the water was suitable for human consumption: “And then it is contaminated with a lubricant.”

And he said that, during the demonstration on Sunday night, conciliators from the capital’s Government attended, but they demand the presence of Carmona, the head of Government and the Secretary of Health, Oliva López Arellano, since the inhabitants already have problems in the skin, such as dermatitis and eye irritation.

Another neighbor of the Del Valle neighborhood, Angélica Castañeda, told Proceso that contaminated water affects different aspects of her life, such as caring for her pets and watering her plants, in addition to preparing food: “This week I decided “I’m not going to cook, we’re going to eat sandwiches and quesadillas, so as not to dirty the dishes.”

Regarding the distribution of jugs carried out by the SGIRyPC at a command post located in San Lorenzo Park, he stated that it is not an adequate measure to counteract the effects: “A high percentage of the mayor’s population are elderly people who do not have ability to walk to a park to pick up jugs and return carrying them on one’s back.”

Castañeda demanded an immediate solution to the problem, but acknowledged that it may not be resolved “overnight,” so he asked the capital government authorities for information on the cleaning of cisterns and water tanks: “To do it properly we need more accuracy.” of the type of contaminant.”

Given the delay in the results of the water tests that the current administration ordered to be analyzed, the neighbors ordered the studies to be carried out with private initiatives, but they do not have the results either: “There is a condominium that they have already paid for the analysis and have not “gone to take the samples.”

Both Angélica Castañeda and José Luis Maya maintained that they demonstrate as citizens and that they do not have any political affiliation.