Water Pollution Becomes a Political Battle
Published on by Water Network Research, Official research team of The Water Network in Government
Water Contamination Disasters in Mexico Have Turned into Political Battles as Officials Struggled to Blame Each Other for the Problems
A town in western Jalisco state is fighting state officials over what caused the death of more than 200 tons of fish at a local lake.
Jalisco state inspectors said that the fish, a species of chub, were killed by high levels of sewage dumped into Lake Cajititlan. The head of the state forensics office, Marco Antonio Cuevas Contreras, said fecal coliform levels were six times higher than permissible limits.
"The death of the fish ... was caused by the lack of oxygen due to the high level of pollution in the lake," he said.
The city government of Tlajomulco, which borders the lake and is responsible for water treatment, called the report "false, irresponsible and inconsistent."
"We condemn the selective handling and politicization of this environmental issue," the city said in a statement. "We won't be a party to these low blows."
The city has re-opened the lake to boaters and has blamed everything from changes in temperature, algae blooms and accumulations of natural sediment for the death of hundreds of thousands of the finger-size fish.
Also on Wednesday, the governor of northern Sonora state angrily attacked federal environmental officials in a full-page newspaper ad and demanded they be expelled from his state.
Sonora, a dry border state, experienced one of the worst mining spills in recent memory when 10 million gallons (40,000 cubic meters) of copper sulfate and heavy metals leaked into two rivers, threatening water supplies for thousands of people.
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