In the Water System of the Valley of Mexico, the ravines have a vital role, as they capture and conduct rainwater that allows the recharge of the aquifer, among other environmental functions. However, they face threats and challenges in restoration and reorganization.
Its preservation must be a priority for the water sustainability of the city, it underlines Juan Manuel Núñezacademic of the University Transdisciplinary Center for Sustainability (Centrus) of the Ibero -American University.
“There is an important challenge in terms of how to reorder those ravines, truly with an approach not only not to pollute, but to restore, to improve conservation, to make a series of infrastructure works that allow to carry that drainage to other sides and not send it directly to those causes,” says the specialist a Political expansion.
‘They throw all their garbage to the ravine’
In the area of La Barranca de Echánove, neighbors have detected and denounced various invasions: a equestrian club operated, as well as a food for foodtrucks that was later closed when detected sale of drugs.
There is currently an repair workshop for transport trucks and near a bass of the Mexico-Toluca highway, at kilometer 13.5, an irregular settlement of people was installed.
“I understand the problem behind, it is people who are not in a position to buy a home, but that in turn is a risk because they throw all their garbage to the ravine, now that it has been raining quite strong there are landslides and situations that do put them at risk,” explains David Figueroa.
This settlement was withdrawn in 2020, however, Figueroa states that just a week later people returned and reinstated.
(Photo: Special)
The risk of irregular settlements is not limited to people with limited resources in search of housing, since there is also interest of large real estate to build in the area that has been declared since 2011 an area of environmental value (AVA), says the member of the Copaco of Lomas de Vista Hermosa.
“There is a latent danger that at any time a developer wants to see very sharp and build a building is persistent. As we live near Santa Fe, an area with a lot of economic movement, at any time a developer bite someone, settles and here we would have a building,” he says.
Neighbors of Lomas de Vista Hermosa made a tour together with representatives of the Mayor’s Office Cuajimalpa, the Ministry of the Environment and the Environmental Attorney’s Office and the Territorial Planning (PAOT), both of the city, as well as the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources Federal, to show the threats that lurk the Barranca. However, the authorities have not followed up, says Figueroa.
