CHALCO, Mexico (AP) — As 56-year-old Juana Salazar Segundo walked through her home in Chalco, a poor suburb southeast of Mexico City, she remembered how black, had reached stinking water up to her navel after the floods early last month.
With the receding fluid reaching her ankles, Salazar waddled into her bedroom, bare of furniture, where only a water pump hummed in the corner. Large black stains stained the once white walls.
For more than a month, streets, homes and businesses in the Culturas neighborhood of Chalco have been contaminated with sewage.
The low-lying area on the edge of what was once an ancient lake has long suffered from seasonal flooding, but residents say this year is even worse: a combination of uncontrolled growth and failing infrastructure.
According to Chalco’s government, more than 2,000 homes and more than 7,000 residents were affected, with water reaching 5 feet (160 centimeters) deep in some areas.
For the past few weeks, Salazar has used four pumps running day and night to extract water from her home. Her hands and legs are stained with black and gray streaks from contact with the polluted floodwater.
“We couldn’t sleep day and night, the water kept rising and rising,” she said.
“I’ve been saying for years that the drainage systems have collapsed,” Salazar said. “I haven’t been able to work because I have to take care of my things, my daughter hasn’t been able to take her son to school … we’re just surviving.”
According to Omar Arellano-Aguilar, a biologist and expert in environmental toxicology at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, the combination of drainage problems and the geological structure of the area makes it vulnerable to flooding.
“All of these urban areas have grown haphazardly over the last 50 years,” he said.
Chalco is a city with over 400,000 inhabitants. Since the late 80s it has grown to be one of the largest cities in the state of Mexico. However, it still lacks basic infrastructure for water and electricity.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has downplayed the crisis in Chalco and said he will not visit the disaster area.
“It’s being taken care of,” he said during one of his daily press conferences last month. “It’s the same reason I didn’t go to Acapulco,” referring to the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Otis, which killed at least 48 people. “It’s like vulture season,” he said of the press who asked him about it.
Gov. Delfina Gómez has visited the neighborhood a handful of times. The governor and Chalco’s administration did not respond to requests for interviews from The Associated Press.
Local, state and federal officials are working in the area, deploying massive pumps to lower water levels, vaccinating residents and providing drinking water.
Outside Salazar’s house, the sun shone brightly on the neighborhood, while the acrid stench of sewage and sludge stretched for miles.
A block away, Oscar Martínez Hinojosa, 49, adjusted the hose on one of his water pumps.
Martínez said that when the floods started, they did not receive any boots or protective clothing from the government. “They gave us nothing, no food, no overalls … and we asked for it,” he said.
Martínez lives with his five family members crammed into a room on the top floor where there is no damage. Downstairs, the courtyard and other bedrooms are flooded up to their ankles.
Another resident, Guadalupe Sarai Islas García, 32, said there are health problems from the sewage. Her baby vomited and had diarrhea for more than a week as the flooding continued.
“No politician knows what it’s like to live like this,” she said. “They can go home, shower, eat in peace and sleep without a care in the world.”
Since her home flooded weeks ago, she sent her children to live with her mother to avoid further exposure to the filth. Other residents have taken similar precautions, even renting rooms in neighboring Ciudad Nezahualcóyotl.
However, the dozens of state and local government trucks lined up on Chalco’s main street pumping tons of water out of the neighborhood have contributed to the water level dropping.
Residents who have managed to lower their water levels are now busy removing debris and silt from their homes.
Over the weekend, authorities reported that there were no more flooded streets and that they had removed 245 tons of sludge. They also removed more than 264 million gallons (1 million cubic meters) of water. They also began cleaning and disinfecting 28 streets that were affected by the flooding.
At an elementary school located near the main intersection, principal Maria Luisa Molina Avila said she was positive about the latest renovations they had made to the grounds after the school was damaged by water. The flooding delayed the start of the school year by two weeks for thousands of students.
“It’s been like a rollercoaster, but thankfully a lot of the streets are dry now,” she said. Together with her daughter and son, they have been pumping out, sweeping and cleaning the school to prepare for the arrival of the students.
“It’s a relief for the kids to be back in school,” said resident García. “Now that our stress levels have been at an all-time high.”
Back on the other side of town, Salazar went to a street corner, accompanied by her dog “Oso,” or “bear,” to attend a neighborhood meeting. She gathered with others and waited for further updates on the construction of a drainage pipe that was scheduled to begin that morning.
As the afternoon rain began to fall, a group of residents became frustrated with the officials overseeing the construction. “Where is the solution to this?” someone said. “We want you to get to work! Look, it’s raining already,” another shouted.
Standing patiently at the edge of the crowd with “Oso,” Salazar silently took in the scene. Like many of her neighbors, she is patiently searching for a solution.
But Arellano-Aguilar doubted that retroactive solutions would work in the increasingly subsiding terrain. “For all the pipes they add, nothing will change,” he said. “On the contrary, all the infrastructure that is being built now will suffer from the effects of subsidence.”
In addition to investing in better drainage systems, Arellano-Aguilar says stakeholders should also consider areas in the watershed where they can divert rainwater.
“We have to learn how to live with the water and accept that there are areas that need to be flooded,” he said.