Enrique Mendez
Newspaper La Jornada
Monday, May 16, 2022, p. eleven
The Housing Commission of the Chamber of Deputies will discuss this Monday a reform to define that, in the construction of houses, the risk atlas is taken into account and construction companies are obliged to guarantee structural safety.
In the draft opinion to be voted on, the commission estimates that seven out of 10 people live in risk areas and highlights that the problem is aggravated because only 20 percent of the municipalities have risk atlases.
With the proposed changes, it is also intended to force the construction companies to have enough spaces in the houses, since there are projects of 40 meters, even without corridors.
The commission, chaired by Lilia Aguilar Gil (PT), highlights in its considerations that, of the people who live in risk areas, 30 percent live in rural areas And, without a doubt, the most affected are always those who live in poverty, since the risk is always greater in homes that do not meet the minimum requirements.
of security.
Likewise, it states that the risks of earthquakes, floods and other meteorological phenomena are especially high in Chiapas, Tabasco, Oaxaca, Campeche and Guerrero, because in addition to the high exposure to risks, more than 40 percent of their housing stock is built with materials flimsy
In contrast, in the rest of the states of the country the percentage of housing built with this type of material is not higher than 25.7 percent.
It also assesses that the lack of a risk atlas in the municipalities requires promoting actions that guarantee the safety of the most vulnerable population, especially in housing, which is the space in which the achievement of various human rights converges.
For this reason, it concludes that risk atlases should be considered for the elaboration of federal, state, municipal and municipal housing programs, so that the people who live in a house are the center of all disaster prevention, and also influence the coordination of the three levels of government to guarantee safe and adequate housing.
