With the recent rains, more than one meter deep of numerous wastes was concentrated
Mazatlan, Sinaloa. – The ecological bio-barrier project, which began as a citizen initiative in the port, works and bears fruit, to the degree that in less than three days and due to the rains recorded in the port, almost 27 tons of garbage were collected.
However, there is so much garbage that is retained, that the capacity of the bio-barrier is about to be exceeded, in addition to the fact that collection cannot be carried out in a timely manner due to the lack of volunteers and machinery.
María de Lourdes San Juan Gallardo, director of Ecology and Environment, said that there is fear on the part of the people involved in the bio-barrier project that a larger storm arises, that will cause the drag of a greater amount of garbage since the maneuvers that are carried out to remove it are complicated.
Cranes and even a backhoe are required to perform the complete work, as well as a motorized pangas, because the same current causes some waste to jump the barrier.
Everything we are generating is voluntary, in the municipality we have the obligation to support the citizen and we do what we can. The day of the storm there was so much garbage that we did not know what to do, but little by little two cranes came out and two crews were put in, among Urban waste staff and a single volunteer, who was the diver Ignacio Zataratin, who did a super job tying the trash to take it out. It was a meter thick, you could walk in it.
Director of Ecology and Environment
She explained that among the wastes were plastic covers trash and Resistol bar, containers to mattresses, refrigerators, armchairs and dead animals, such as river turtles, rats, and even an alligator was among the tumult of garbage.
The idea of the bio-barrier is very good, there were skeptical people who told us that it would not work. The bio-barrier has made visible the problem we have in Mazatlan, of the lack of awareness in waste management. With this we want people to see what should not be done.
She reiterated that at the moment the donation of a motorboat is planned and the acquisition of a panga is pending, in order to be able to capture not only the garbage that remains anchored but also that which escapes to the sea.
They expect more citizens and businesses, as well as academic institutions, to join this cause, which requires more hands to work.
The bio-barrier is 42 meters long and is made of recycled fishing nets and PET containers. It was placed at the height of the Juarez bridge, divided into two sections to allow the passage of the boats that pass through the area. All plastics and waste that are dragged along the Jabalíes stream pass through this point before reaching the ocean.
PROBLEMS
All garbage collected on the Juárez bridge is sent to the municipal dump by elements of Urban Cleanliness; To this is added the spillage of wastewater in the estuary of Infiernillo, a problem that was already taken to Jumapam.
DAILY MONITORING
The bio-barrier is monitored by the promoter, the environmentalist Sofía Trejo Lemus, by the Ecology Department and by Javier Acosta, a fisherman who daily removes the waste with his panga.
Source: el sol de mazatlan
The Mazatlan Post
