While acknowledging that the Government of Mexico City is applying a water strategy to avoid shortages, the Union of Mayors of Mexico City (UNACDMX) requested that resources also be allocated to care for the city’s secondary pipeline network, as well as to apply a plan focused on real estate developers who have not carried out mitigation work for more than 10 years.
At a press conference, the new spokeswoman for the UNACDMXMargarita Saldaña, explained that these are two pending in the current plan of the central government, since they have focused on the primary network and on drawing water from the capital’s wells, at the same time that standards have been generated for new real estate projects.
Although it is true that things are divided between the primary network, the secondary network, both drinking water and drainage, it is also true that if there is no close cooperation between the City Government and mayors, we will hardly be able to get out of the problem of the scarcity of water that we have (…) It is necessary to distinguish between primary network and secondary networks to better attend to this problem”, Saldaña Hernández explained.
Also mayor of Azcapotzalco He recalled that the central government announced that there are 64 real estate developments in the city (debts amount to 800 million pesos) that finished their works for more than 10 years and did not comply with water mitigation; therefore, said the mayor, this needs to be addressed.
Margarita Saldaña reported that in the face of these pending, steps are already being taken with SACMEX to locate leaks and invest more resources in hydraulic infrastructure; so a meeting will be held this week, possibly on Monday night.
Situation
Saldaña Hernández highlighted that in the Azcapotzalco mayor’s office there are problems with drinking water, for example, due to leaks there are areas that are left without the liquid; in the mayor’s office 300 pipes are required daily and currently there is only the capacity to provide water with 150 pipes.
For his part, the mayor of Benito JuarezSantiago Taboada, reported that the concern is centered on three wells located in Xoco, Del Valle neighborhood and in the SCOP unit, on which practically half of the city hall’s water depends.
For this reason, he said, he will request that the development mitigation works that have already been paid to the Government of Mexico City and some that have already been completed be used for the construction of these wells before the end of 2023.
“We are not against development, what we are looking for is that what is developed is really mitigated in the area where it is developed (…) what we have asked SACMEX is that it allows us to refocus them on areas that really require this change of drainage and drinking water,” he added.
The mayor of CuauhtemocSandra Cuevas, indicated that the problem in her demarcation is that there are pipes that are more than 70 years old, “they are made of iron, asbestos or cement and currently there are frequent water leaks.”
He specified that only 15% of the city hall’s pipes have been replaced by high-density polyethylene.
For his part, the mayor of Miguel Hidalgo, Mauricio Tabe, pointed out that in the demarcation he administers there are leaks in the pipes of the hydraulic network, an example of this are 30 sections that require intervention to reinforce and thus prevent the pressure from decreasing and that less liquid reaches other areas of the city.
“The call is not to give more to those who have more, but to give more resources so that water reaches the Central and Eastern areas,” he said.