Planting trees helps prevent floods in Mérida, expert says

José Enrique Collado declared that they are working on a project with Implan to make systems friendly to the environment.

Merida, Yucatan, (October 11, 2021).- The director of Municipal Public Services, José Enrique Collado Soberanis, when asked about methods of collecting rain for the use of water and avoiding floods, affirmed that by planting trees they are contributing to the absorption of the liquid.

“We are working on a project with the Municipal Planning Institute (Implan) to make some systems friendly to the environment, we are planting trees, planting shrubs so that it is a recirculation of water, oxygen,” he said.

He assured that the Implan has a strategy that they have already started in Ya’axtal, a park known as “the great lung of Mérida”, and continued saying that the planting of trees contributes to the capture of water.

“The more trees we plant there may be more help that the land is not so arid,” he explained that it is where there are no green areas where the water remains stagnant causing floods, while in areas with trees they can absorb the liquid.

Just this October 5, the Plaza las Américas area was flooded after the rain that day, leaving vehicles visible only halfway through; He pointed out that this area is at a level below the rest, so the reservoirs they have placed were insufficient.

This time there were no more affected areas, he said, although he acknowledged that some points in the Historic Center also tend to flood with the rains, the water manages to leave quickly.

He pointed out that the Calle 69 by 71, 62 between 64, and the so-called “expansion of the second square”, before reaching neighborhoods like Santa Rosa, also suffer floods, “but after two or three hours the drainage works.”

“Our system is based on gravity, so the water has to fall and is being absorbed, we do not have a storm drain that can collapse”, the type of subsoil of the entity, he resumed, allows the water to be absorbed, unlike what happens in places like Mexico City, ended. 

Source: La Jornada Maya