Mazatlan is running out of lungs

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Saturated streets, cement, cars and buildings, the green spaces in the city are tiny and sporadic points in the more than 2 thousand 500 square kilometers that make up the municipality.

MAZATLÁN._ From the sky, Mazatlan is seen as a gray spot flanked by the blue of the sea and the green of the Sierra Madre Occidental.

Saturated streets, cement, cars and buildings, the green spaces in the city are tiny and sporadic points in the more than 2 thousand 500 square kilometers that make up the municipality.

Deforestation is aggravated: not only green areas or natural parks are not conserved, but every day citizens ask to cut trees, while others are simply cut without permission because they represent a risk or to favor real estate development.

While the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends a minimum of 9 square meters of green area per inhabitant, in the city of Mazatlan there are only 2.4 meters, according to data from the Municipal Institute of Planning provided earlier this year.

And the distance seems even more unattainable when compared with the ideal figure, which is 16 square meters.

Mazatlan urges new “lungs” because the City Forest is insufficient and in large sectors has not even contemplated a space for this environmental function, said the Director of Ecology and Environment, Lourdes Sanjuan Gallardo.

“Request for logging comes to us all week for other reasons, especially for old trees that endanger private or urban infrastructure.

We have to review, give a solution, and only in the last case do we give the authorization, “he revealed.

On Saturday, May 4, for example, residents of the Gaviotas subdivision denounced the demolition of an abandoned building, where an amapa of more than 30 years, presumably to build an apartment tower, came tumbling down.

The case is in review of Ecology to verify if they had any permission, confirmed Lourdes San Juan. It’s not an exceptional case.

The solution is not simple, said the official, because there are not enough spaces to replace the lost vegetation.

In the ridges there are buried trunks that prevent proper reforestation, so there is a great deal of work to be done.

Meanwhile, the effects of the temperature are suffering more and more, as it happened last summer with thermal sensations of 38 to 48 degrees Celsius, according to reports from the Meteorological Service of the National Water Commission.

Above these problems, the most delicate thing is that there is a lack of water to reforest as the municipality needs it.

“This is another problem that deserves attention, the truth is that there is no water, we are going through a dry season and we can not reforest if we do not have the guarantee that there will be water for these plants to survive.”

To face this challenge from the local level, arborization actions are carried out in colonies or schools, as well as awareness campaigns for citizens to value and take care of the trees. But there is no time to waste, warns the environmentalist.

Disposal of green areas The Broad Social Sinaloan Movement (MASS) reports as a common practice the dispossession of green areas through the figure of donation in past municipal governments, without consulting neighbors and without legal and social justification.

René Castro Lizárraga is the legal representative of some affected people who insist on reversing donations and having their parks back.

It follows up on cases in Hacienda del Mar Fraccionamiento, in Infonavit Alarcón, La Foresta, ejido El Castillo, but there are scattered throughout the municipality.

“In the municipalities, in a corrupt manner, they have been donating, they have even donated to officials who have businesses, who have built, and so we have information on some areas that were common …”, he accused.

It is what the neighbors say, who have seen houses, supermarkets, stores and various buildings on lands where there used to be a park, a garden or simply common areas.

Thus, every time there is less space for recreation and for the urban flora, while the city is submerged in the gray spot.

IMPORTANCE OF THE URBAN FLORA

For WHO, planting more trees in cities is one of the main strategies to combat climate change and air pollution. Currently, 92 percent of the world’s population lives in urban areas where air quality is not optimal for human health.

The urban flora acts as filters for urban pollutants and fine particles.

They absorb carbon dioxide, the main cause of global warming, while releasing oxygen.

They help avoid flooding and reduce the temperature and the need to use air conditioning.

Source: noroeste

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