The Mexico City Water System (Sacmex) has reported to the capital's Prosecutor's Office an alleged sabotage as the cause of water contamination in the Alfonso XIII well that supplies the Benito Juárez mayor's office, in which a compound was found. of degraded oils and that has caused a strong smell of fuel and cloudy, dark colors in the water: "which suggests the commission of criminal conduct," says the complaint that was released this Thursday night, but which was formally filed last Wednesday, April 17. Myriam Vilma Urzúa Venegas, Secretary of Comprehensive Risk Management and Civil Protection, assures that sabotage is only one of the possible causes of contamination: “It is one of the strong lines of investigation we have,” she warns.
Sacmex's complaint was presented on April 17 before the Attorney General's Office of Mexico City (FGJCDMX)—almost 20 days after the first complaints from neighbors were made public—in which they stated: “It is stated the presence of some type of contaminant present in the drinking water extracted from the drinking water well called Alfonso supply of drinking water, resulting in disruption to the economic, political, social or cultural life in the Benito Juárez mayor's office."
When questioned about this procedure, Urzúa Venegas clarified in an interview with W Radio that it was necessary to file a complaint for sabotage because it is one of the causes that the capital authorities consider to explain the origin of the contamination. “There are many lines... it could have been a criminal act. The well is 250 meters deep and between 30 and 40 centimeters in diameter, that is why doing all the suction and cleaning work is not easy, technically it is not easy,” she explained.
Sacmex has requested the intervention of the General Coordination of Forensic Investigation and Expert Services of the Prosecutor's Office, to appoint an official expert in environmental matters, who, they hope, will be the one who determines the conditions of the water extracted from the well. The complaint also asks the Police to “carry out an exhaustive investigation of the events that gave rise to this complaint; go to the place to carry out a visual inspection and take graphs of it; locate possible witnesses that can corroborate that the provision of the public service of distribution and supply of drinking water by SACMEX is hindered; and, finally, locate those possibly accused of these acts.”
On April 11, President López Obrador tried to clarify the matter and ruled out sabotage among the reasons being considered to explain how the problem originated. The president ruled out sabotage because, he assured, there were no elements to confirm that version and, instead, he said that technicians from the state oil company Pemex collaborated in the verification and review tasks of that company's pipelines that pass near the area: “There is already a review of a pipeline that passes about 500 meters from where the well is and all of Pemex's underground facilities are being reviewed, nothing has been found so far, but that does not mean that anything that may be possible has been ruled out. there was a leak,” he said.
Urzúa Venegas rectified that through the work of Pemex it was possible to find the components that caused the contamination, and recalled that in the first days the presence of gasoline was ruled out: “It is a degraded oil that is currently being analyzed to see what other elements can have. There is no other substance. "It's not gasoline." Urzúa has assured that in recent days, the smell in the water is decreasing, according to what neighbors and inhabitants of Benito Juárez have told him, and added that there is also less and less attention requested by those affected.
The fate of contaminated water that has already been collected
During the interview of Secretary Urzúa Venegas, the testimony of one of those in charge of transporting the water in pipes, which has been collected from the Alfonso XIII well, was played while the official listened: “We are going to clean the cisterns,” he says. And where are they going to take her?, asks the reporter: “Well... supposedly to Lake Chapultepec, or to irrigation, to green areas,” says the worker, ensuring that this is the instruction he has received.
In the background, Urzúa denies and responds: “No. Unfortunately..., generally what is being done is that the water is extracted and that goes to a vactor [vehicle] and then to a recycling center and we are going to take it to a place of confinement, that is, it does not go to the Lake Chapultepec is not even irrigated, he concludes.
A few hours after this interview, the Secretariat of the Environment of Mexico City (Sedema) published an information card in which it assures that, in its right of reply and to guarantee information, it denies that the destination of the contaminated water was sent to the aforementioned places: “It is false that the water from the cisterns and tanks is taken to the lakes of the Chapultepec Forest. It is false that the withdrawn water is used to irrigate green areas. With the help of pipes, the water is removed from the cisterns and tanks to be transferred to Sacmex treatment plants,” they say.