Pollution warning in Mexican beaches

The Mexican government has flipped on a red alert warning for high pollution levels in five beaches from three of the country’s top tourist circuits. Those are the cases of Playa Norte and Iguana Norte in Veracruz (Gulf of Mexico); Caletilla and Tlacopanocha in Acapulco (west Guerrero) and Canal de la Boquita in Zihuatanejo and part of Guerrero.

In all, 138 beaches were checked, including the ones in Puerto Vallarta, Acapulco, Los Cabos and Veracruz, the most sought-after destinations. Out of that total, 129 foreshores passed as clean while four fell in the acceptable category (counting one in Vallarta and another in Acapulco), with pollution levels that pose no hazard to human health. Finally, five beaches were labeled as swimmer killers.

The nation’s minister of the environment Victor Lichtinger said in an interview on WRadio that the government has no intention to shut off the polluted beaches because “that’s highly complicated,” yet it committed itself to hang out fancy billboards to strike people’s attention.

“It’s not a crime to take a swim in those beaches, but it’s hazardous to people’s health. It’s their call to either take a chance or not,” he said.

The billboards will also be put up in ports and river mouths, banning people from taking a swim there altogether for safety reasons. .

The Mexican Minister pointed to cities’ cesspool water dumping systems as the leading cause of pollution in the areas, yet he stressed municipal authorities are going to great lengths to overcome infrastructure problems and build water treatment plants.

Hotel companies aired their anger over the spread of the study and asked authorities to refrain from making public comments on further assessments to avoid damages to the economy.

Miguel Torruco, president of the Mexican Hotel and Motel Association, indicated this entity will request the government to “stop making untimely public comments in the future prior to the opening of the vacation season.”

For her part, tourism secretary Leticia Navarro stated those research studies were carried out on a periodic basis and their upshots will be available to the pubic on the Internet.

Tourism accounts for the third-largest source of revenue for the nation, trailing just the oil industry and money remittance from overseas. Every year, around 20 million tourists travel to Mexico and leave as many as $8.5 billion.