Mexico: Conflict over drinking water service

Conflict erupts in the community of Ixtulco over drinking water service. Neighbours point to a probable embezzlement of more than one million Pesos (US$ 50000) by the outgoing Water Commission, the Mexican newspaper El Sol de Tlaxcala reports.

The alleged embezzlement of more than a million pesos by the Comisión de Agua Potable in the town of Ixtulco, municipality of Tlaxcala, has led to a confrontation between neighbours demanding compensation and those responsible for providing the service.

The events took place on Sunday 20 October, in the town’s main square, where the dispute escalated into a physical confrontation after months of disagreement. The confrontation took place during a meeting to change the water commission, after it had been reported that documents containing the accounts of the outgoing commission had been stolen from the commission’s premises, an illegal act that had been reported to the president of the Santa María Ixtulco municipality, Hugo Sánchez Méndez.

The discrepancy grew because, although the offices were reported to have been robbed, they were not sealed off by the municipality’s preventive units, who merely recommended that a complaint be lodged with the relevant authorities.

The new president of the water committee, Jacob Nava Rodríguez, said that the previous committee had not filed a complaint about the alleged theft of the equipment, so they demanded that the equipment be handed over so that they could file a complaint.

After the confrontation, the secretary of Tlaxcala’s municipal council, Víctor Hugo Gutiérrez Morales, went to the community to inspect the conditions in which the equipment was found and to shut it down until the neighbourhood conflict was resolved.

Source: El Sol de Tlaxcala (Spanish)

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