THE RESIDENTS OF CHALCO, AFTER 20 DAYS UNDER SEWAGE: “THE SMELL MAKES YOU WANT TO VOMIT”

Some 2,000 homes are flooded by the collapse of the drains, due to the dirt and heavy rains. A long operation by the State of Mexico and the Army is unsuccessfully trying to lower the water level.

By Beatriz Guillén - El País

Felipe Delgadillo holds tight to his market bags. He has reasons: he is sitting on the tip of a Civil Protection boat and underneath there is more than a meter of sewage. Now, for something as simple as shopping, working or even going to the bathroom, the residents of Culturas de México, in Chalco, depend on the cans that the Government of the State of Mexico has put in place. It's either that or go through the sewage that has flooded his neighborhood and a dozen others around him. The municipal government estimates that 2,000 homes have been affected, in total, more than 7,600 people. The collapse of the drains, due to dirt and heavy rains, prevents the water level from dropping after three weeks. Felipe, 61, thanks the officials who have transferred him with some soft drinks and says goodbye kindly with his hand before entering his house: the water is already up to his knee.

The neighbors say that it was a strong storm, but nothing more than that. In a region where it rains continuously for more than three months, downpours are not scary, even though they have been fighting floods for years. However, they do not remember anything like what happened on the night of July 26. The water rose, rose, and did not go down again. Since then, like dominoes, one tragedy has brought others.

Respiratory, digestive and skin diseases have skyrocketed, neighbors have diarrhea and fungus on their legs, and hives grow in babies. The drains bubble dirty water incessantly; they cannot turn on the taps to wash their hands, or clean dishes, or clothes. They also can't shower or go to the bathroom: you can't flush the toilet. More than 1,100 people have been evacuated – they have gone with relatives or to one of the three shelters set up – but many do not want to leave their homes and leave them at the mercy of looting. Pedro, Diego and José Dagoberto have lost their jobs. They did not manage to arrive on time to work at the construction site, to the warehouse, to the sale: they depended on government boats to go out to solid ground if they did not want to arrive wet and dirty. The bosses forgave them one day, no more. Like them, many families have been left without their only source of income, in a town where 60% of the inhabitants are already in conditions of poverty.

Mónica González Islas Chalco, located about 30 kilometers from Mexico City, grew about three decades ago to accommodate the waves of inhabitants who came to work in the capital. Now, more than 400,000 people live in the municipality, many scattered among the hills, in irregular and crowded buildings. However, the Culturas de México neighborhood is a perfect grid, located in the lower part of the town. That location, Pedro Rodríguez points out, is one of the problems. All the water, from rain and from the drains of the colonies above, reaches them. And he doesn't leave, because he has nowhere to escape. He shows photos of his wooden room, where dark water flutters between the upper drawers. I have saved the microwave, but the refrigerator and stove have already gone bad. The same story is repeated in every block of the Culturas de México neighborhood, the most affected.

The water is almost waist-deep in the home of Flor Fabiola Flores, 39, who lives with her children and her mother: "You can't see the toilet anymore." She goes out every day with wellies to go to work at her security post and return with food to the top floor of her house, where they have been living for three weeks. He shows the grains around his body and recognizes that he is afraid of infections. Nurse Daniela Pareja, from the Cuatro Vientos Health Center, is part of the medical teams deployed by the Government to assist the neighbors. The main thing, he says, is to vaccinate them against tetanus and pneumococcus. Flor believes that the worst thing is the stench: "The smell makes us want to vomit." "My house smells like you're inside a public bathroom," says Diego Castañeda, 27. The stagnant water in his house reaches his navel: "The worst thing is that the level does not go down, but continues to rise." They are all demanding solutions from the government of Delfina Gómez.

The main obstacle is a gigantic garbage plug – 50 meters long and 2.4 meters in diameter, according to the Government of the State of Mexico – that obstructs the Solidarity Collector, the central pipe through which waste is drained in the municipality. The state executive has been trying to clear the drain for three weeks, without success. The water is also being transferred with pumping machinery to other points. But the rain doesn't let up. "Some water is removed, it rains and it fills up again," explains a member of the Army, assigned to clean the area. The military, state and Civil Protection agents with whom this newspaper spoke estimate that there are still another two weeks of work to go.

Mónica González Islas President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has said in his morning conference that it is a "structural, deep" problem: "Because it is a drainage with very limited dimensions, very small, which was exceeded. In addition, also, with garbage problems. In other words, it is a drainage of very small diameter for everything that has been raining. It is also a low-lying area. It is necessary to look for a substantive solution, but it is already being addressed and we will continue. all do so."

This main pipe has many problems in its more than 30 years of use, explained the mayor of Chalco, Miguel Gutiérrez, in a statement. In addition to the plug, the collector has three sinkholes and several "counter slopes of up to 2.2 meters". "With a length of three kilometers, it receives combined water from the municipalities of Chalco and Valle de Chalco," explains Gutiérrez, who points out that the infrastructure, built during the six-year term of Carlos Salinas de Gortari, was designed for a much smaller population. "27 years ago, houses were settled irregularly on the collector, so since then it has complicated repair and maintenance work. The current characteristics of this infrastructure do not allow the effective evacuation of the waters, which has caused floods for approximately 14 years," he points out.

The collector is an old known problem. In November 2022, with Alfredo del Mazo's PRI at the head of the State Government, a mega-project of 115 million pesos (about six million dollars) was announced to remodel it, lengthen it and facilitate the exit of water. It was due to be ready in eight months, local and state officials said at the time. However, the work was stopped and is still 40% complete. Now, for the residents of Chalco, it is too late.