“There are no watersheds here, there is no fresh water. We live in a semi-desert”: Miguel Ángel.
The consequences are already visible: beaches closed due to pollution, health risks for visitors and even airborne particles.
In collaboration with Pamela Cerdeira for MVS Noticias, Miguel Ángel Fernández, director of MVS Noticias in Tijuana, spoke about the problem of sewage flowing into the Pacific Ocean and polluting beaches in the United States and Mexico.
For at least 12 years, Mexican and US beaches on the Pacific coast have been polluted by untreated sewage dumped directly into the sea from sewage treatment plants in Tijuana and Rosarito. Fernández denounced this environmental crisis as a real ‘water crime’.
“It is an ecological crisis, a public health crisis, but above all a crisis of environmental justice”, he said in an interview. According to him, the problem has its origins in the lack of maintenance of the treatment plants since 2015, when the then governor of Baja California, Francisco ‘Kiko’ Vega, stopped investing in their operation. However, Fernández clarified that the illegal dumping dates back to at least 2012.
What is the most important factor in polluted water?
The most serious, he said, is that the current treatment process consists only of removing the sludge and adding chlorine, which does not meet any international standards. “The water is practically discharged directly into the sea,” he said.
The consequences are already visible: beaches closed due to pollution, health risks for visitors and even particles suspended in the air from this marine pollution. “What we breathe is also affected”, he said.
What measures have been taken?
At present, the government of Marina del Pilar Ávila, with the support of the federal government, has taken measures to contain the disaster. The Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Alicia Bárcena, has been appointed to coordinate the project for a new treatment plant in San Antonio de los Buenos, which is estimated to be able to treat 70 to 80 per cent of the sewage. However, the remaining 30 per cent will continue to flow into the sea, and a solution to this problem depends on an additional plant in San Diego.
The problem also highlights the precarious nature of Tijuana’s water supply. “There are no reservoirs here, there is no fresh water. We live in a semi-desert area”, the journalist explained. The supply comes from the Colorado River, 150 kilometres away, after a journey of more than 2,200 kilometres from the Rockies, through five US states.
“The wonder of having water here is a miracle”, said Fernández, who insisted on the need to value, treat and reuse water, not only as an economic resource, but also as a natural heritage to be preserved.
Meanwhile, the citizens continue to look for those responsible, not understanding that this situation has been going on for six years and there is still no definitive solution.
