Americas News
Mexico to clean up Acapulco Bay in 70-million dollar operation
May 23, 2008, 21:40 GMT
Mexico City - Mexican President Felipe Calderon on Friday launched a multi-million-dollar plan to clean up beaches on Acapulco Bay, one of the country's main tourist destinations and currently polluted by sewage water.
The programme contemplates investment of some 70 million dollars by 2011, National Water Commission director Jose Luis Luege Tamargo said at an event headed by Calderon in the port city of Acapulco on the Pacific coast.
'To put it simply, we are going to rescue Acapulco Bay,' said Calderon.
Zeferino Torreblanca, governor of the state of Guerrero, and Acapulco Mayor Felix Salgado Macedonio were also present.
The programme will seek to improve infrastructure to dispose of sewage water, to improve drainage, to guarantee the supply of abundant high-quality drinking water and to prevent flooding in seasons of rain and hurricanes.
Acapulco, some 390 kilometres south-west of Mexico City, is Mexicans' favourite beach resort destination. However, it has lost the glamour it enjoyed in the 1970s, when it was favoured by the jet set and Hollywood stars.
The city currently has some 640,000 residents and hosts an estimated 6 million visitors a year, from Mexico and abroad.
Given the bad reputation currently of its beaches, in recent years it has become a tradition for the mayor to publicly get into the water in advance of tourist season to show that it poses no health threats.
The new programme, Calderon noted, will put an end to the feeling that water quality 'depends on whether officials get in or not.'
Luege Tamargo explained that Acapulco generates 2,010 litres of sewage per second and only 15 per cent, some 310 litres per second, currently receive treatment.
In April, one health ministry official said none of the 15 beaches in and around Acapulco met the standards to be granted the quality certificate by the environment ministry.
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Older Talkback
page: 1
I love Acapulco, and I did get a chance to live there in 2002/2003. I have been going there, since 1962, and I do speak Spanish as a second language. I was able to help somany people there and here, and to God, I give the thanks. There are honest and dishonest people in Acapulco, like all over the world. I was a 20 years old, when I went there by myself, and the people loved me and helped me with Spanish, and I helped them with English. I did have some who were jealous of me and did steal from me, but it was their lost, and not mine, for the same has happened here. When you try to helpand trust people, there is a risk, that they are crooks, but it will not stop me from helping with my excess. May God bless Acapulco and the world!
page: 1
I'd rather not say...May 26th, 2008 - 16:07:46
If you can clean up the politics you can clean up the world. Comparing Acapulco to what it used to be 30 years ago no longer counts. It was a small town that has grown into a city and with that comes many issues that need to be dealt with- on time.
City planning is at fault and of course educating the society which this goes back a long long time ago. Now it will take many years to get things where they need to be. But will its own residents of Acapulco respect their own city? Is Los Angeles what it used to be 30 years ago? Do the people of Los Angeles respect their city?
The world needs to change its way of being. We the people are ruining not only Acapulco but many other beautiful places in the world that exist and also that are to be discovered. Peace and love baby....not war....not selfishness....calm down your ego. Love thy neighbor.
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