Mexico authorities declare health emergency for trash buildup in Acapulco

Desdemona Despair

By Jenni Fink
31 August 2018

(Newsweek) – On Thursday, Mexican authorities declared a health emergency for the beach town of Acapulco because of large quantities of uncollected garbage that have piled up.

Carlos de la Peña, the health secretary of the state of Guerrero, located on Mexico’s Pacific Coast, told the Associated Press that city authorities ignored previous warnings about the trash and there were “impressive columns of garbage” located in several places.

In areas where the garbage was particularly bad, state officials worked to clean and fumigate the area to prevent diseases, according to a Facebook post. He blamed the city for not properly collecting the garbage and said the decision to take precautionary cleaning measures came from Governor Hector Astudillo Flores. The actions were taken in an effort to avoid having to close down schools, restaurants, houses and retail shops.

The health secretary told reporters that officials from the ministry of health visited various parts of Acapulco and found that 40 percent of the area’s population didn’t have garbage collection service, which led to the accumulation of trash.

“We had to take action in the face of inaction by the authorities, Acapulco is not the only municipality where we have acted, we have done it in Chilpancingo and Zihuatanejo, for identical situations, garbage problems, we have to protect the citizenship,” he explained.

But Acapulco Mayor Evodio Velazquez said that trash was being collected and accused the state government of not providing sufficient funding to solve the problem, according to the AP. [more]

Mexican Authorities Declare Health Emergency for Trash Buildup in Acapulco