Water shortages in communities in Atltzayanca.
Five months after the government took office, the residents of Felipe Carrillo Puerto, Honguito, Ocotitla, La Garita, Loma Junguito, Mesa Redonda and Nazareth in the municipality of Atltzayanca called on the local congress to intervene because the mayor, Luis Alberto Huerta Hernández, had failed to find a solution to the water shortages affecting their families. Angrily, they said they had gone to see the PAN mayor in his office, but had been refused entry and found him absent.
They said that in May of last year Huerta Hernández asked for the vote of the communities because there would be a change and the people would not have problems with shortages, but the opposite is the case. They said that if the problem is not resolved, the springs will dry up again in April, leaving a large part of the population of Atltzayanca without water.
They explained that the communities depend on surface water because it is very expensive to extract it from the depths at more than 600 metres. Residents of the Nazareth community felt that 300,000 pesos to replace the pump of the well that burned was a lot of money and not enough to pay for the rehabilitation. They said they had been without water for 15 days and had to buy the vital liquid from companies specialising in this business, even though the town council was supposed to do it.
In the municipalities of Felipe Carrillo Puerto and Mesa Redonda, the population is facing water shortages, while the State Water and Sanitation Commission has launched a programme to collect water in schools and public buildings, but it has not rained since October. La Garita – a town bordering the state of Puebla – is another community where 20 families are without water.
Although previous administrations had installed a pumping system to bring water to the entire population, in the upper part of the town there is not enough water and families have to carry water from the spring on donkeys or pick-up trucks, which they have to pay for.
The newspaper El Sol de Taxclala went to see the mayor on several occasions, but his staff said he was constantly travelling to the capital for security meetings.
