Agency to supervise cleanup of 22 Yucatan cenotes in 2017

The federal delegate of the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (Semarnat), Jorge Carlos Berlin Montero, announced that this year the agency will continue the rescue and cleanup of 22 cenotes in Yucatan.

He commented that last year Semarnat, worried about the dirt and contamination of these bodies of water, employed reinforcements with divers to clean and to preserve 14 cenotes that are very visited and known in the state.

For 2017, Semarnat will carry out the maintenance and rescue of 22 more freshwater cenotes, in different municipalities of the state.

According to Semarnat, there are about 7,000 cenotes in the entity, Yucatan, of which more than 80% have pockets of contamination and dirt due to their poor condition.

“The bad state is a consequence of the hand of man, because people who live near these beauties of nature use them to throw bottles or garbage or, for their physiological needs and unfortunately are contaminating all groundwater,” he said.

Berlin Montero recalled that the ancient Mayas preserved the cenotes throughout the centuries, as they not only made human sacrifices but also used water for consumption because there were no potable water pipes.

“Someday we’re going to need the fresh water from the cenotes and that’s why we need to take care of them,” he said.

The state official clarified that they are waiting for the amount of resources that will be assigned to the unit, but said that special attention will be given to the marginalized population.

As for the sargazo that appears in the ports, he clarified that it is something natural since it is part of the biology of the seas, because it serves for an ecological balance.

Finally, he said that it is hoped that before the Easter holidays more sargazo will not accumulate so that activity in the ports can recover.

Source: yucatanalamano.com