Angelica Enciso L.
Newspaper La Jornada
Monday, January 23, 2023, p. eleven
Due to the removal of mud from the Tula River, carried out by companies contracted by the Conagua for its lining with cement, and which are deposited next to the channel, dozens of people have been intoxicated due to the gases that these materials cause, confined in the center of the city of the same name of the tributary in Hidalgo, indicated those affected.
Last December, the extraction of sediments began, which instead of being taken to sanitary deposits, were placed outdoors on the banks of the channel.
A few days ago the most recent extraction of matter settled in the bed was made and, during tours carried out by neighbors and members of the Union of Victims of We Are All Tula, they began to feel headaches, eye irritation and nausea. This led to several people becoming intoxicated.
The residents gave their public testimony to denounce that sludge has been removed from the Metlac bridge to take it to the red bridge
, where companies use them to fill, improperly, according to the opinions of those in charge of the work, the holes in the ground. Last Saturday, members of the Alianza Hidalguense Ambiental sent a letter to the state governor, Julio Menchaca Salazar, exposing the problem and asking for a solution.
Angélica Arellano, from the Todos Somos Tula movement, explained that the cement lining project for the river was proposed as a solution to the 2021 floods, but with the commissioning of the Oriente Emission Tunnel, the amount of wastewater sent to the region increased and the effectiveness of only removing silt from the tributary is already in doubt.
He recalled that they had been opposed to the cement coating for several years due to the size of the planned felling of trees, since in just one day they managed to cut 1,500 specimens.
Now, with the Tula Water Plan, which Conagua announced last year, they resumed lining the river as a solution, awarding the maneuvers to various companies, some of them inexperienced
he pointed.
Since December, the people who live on the river bank began to perceive the fetid environment that affected their well-being; in the center of Tula, the mud was already like tar
recounted Arellano, who was also intoxicated.
He indicated that, given the problem, toxicologists from the University of the State of Mexico came to take samples of which in a few days they will give the results. He warned that 5,000 children and young people are at direct risk, since there are several schools near the river.
