Bacalar hotels to be inspected for ecological standards

An inspection will be made of tourism developments to find out if they comply within the ecological standards.

BACALAR, Q. Roo — Along the 55 kilometers of the Bacalar Lagoon, there are cabins and hotels that can only be seen on boat tours and that had not been regulated since the previous administrations.

Mauricio Morales Beiza, president of the Committee on Urban Development and Transportation, said that an inspection of tourist developments is carried out to find out if they comply with the ecological and health standards required by the Federal Government.

“Bacalar has gone through a disorderly development with national and foreign interests involved, which has caused a series of tourist developments to be installed throughout the 55 kilometers of the lagoon, promoting and profiting from the natural resources and beauty of the municipality,” Moralez Beiza said.

He emphasized that, at the time, no regulation was made of these businesses, therefore inspection along the 55 kilometers of lagoon will be carried out, where they have seen cabins and hotels, which are only visible if a boat is used.

He commented that over the course of six years, the municipality was developed without the protection of authority and without regulation to prevent further contamination of the lagoon body.

Luisa Falcón, a researcher at the Institute of Ecology at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), said that in the last five years the concentration of nutrients such as phosphate nitrate and nitrite in the lagoon has increased significantly.

She pointed out that a clear sign of pollution can be observed during the rainy season, when the characteristic color of that lagoon body changes from the front of the village to the area of Los Rápidos in Xul-Há.

Alexander Zetina Aguiluz, municipal president, confirmed that there are four points of the lagoon, from Xul-Há to the community of Pedro Antonio Santos, which are contaminated by the lack of biodigesters in the houses and surrounding communities.

Source: http://sipse.com/novedades/