VZCZCXRO5713
RR RUEHCD RUEHHO RUEHMC RUEHNG RUEHNL RUEHRD RUEHRS RUEHTM
DE RUEHGD #0122/01 0742128
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 142128Z MAR 08
FM AMCONSUL GUADALAJARA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0645
INFO RUEHXC/ALL US CONSULATES IN MEXICO COLLECTIVE
RUEHME/AMEMBASSY MEXICO 1851
RUEHGD/AMCONSUL GUADALAJARA 4695

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 GUADALAJARA 000122 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: SENV SOCI PGOV EAID MX
SUBJECT: A SEWER RUNS THROUGH IT:  BOY'S DEATH DRAWS ATTENTION TO 
CONTAMINATED RIVER 
 
REF: 07 Guadalajara 0076 
 
GUADALAJAR 00000122  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
¶1.  Summary:  A child's death after falling into the severely 
polluted Santiago River in the Guadalajara suburb of El Salto 
has finally attracted official and popular attention to a 
long-standing ecological nightmare.  But after years of official 
neglect and indifference, the authorities are seeking a quick 
fix by covering up the problem, rather than addressing its 
fundamental causes - an all-too-familiar reaction to 
environmental crises in western Mexico.  End Summary. 
 
------------------------ 
A Death in El Salto: 
------------------------ 
 
¶2.  In early February 2008, eight-year-old Miguel Angel Lopez 
fell into the heavily contaminated Santiago River while playing 
with friends near his home in the town of El Salto, the smallest 
and remotest of the six municipalities that make up the 
Guadalajara metropolitan area.  Less than two weeks later he was 
dead, with tests at the local hospital showing a high 
concentration of arsenic and heavy metals in his body. 
Subsequent tests conducted by the State Forensics Institute 
failed to confirm the presence of arsenic, but did show 
extensive contamination by fecal bacteria.  Either way, there is 
strong evidence that the river water poisoned the child. 
 
¶3.  The boy's death touched a chord in Mexico's second largest 
urban area.  Local media extensively covered the parents' 
anguished charges of government indifference to the pollution 
that killed their son and blamed local businesses for 
contaminating the river.  For several weeks the story was 
front-page news and a steady stream of citizens vented their 
outrage in letters to the editor and on local talk-radio shows. 
 
-------------------- 
State of Denial 
-------------------- 
 
¶4.  The initial reaction of the authorities was tepid.  Governor 
Emilio Gonzalez Marquez expressed sympathy for the parents and 
declared "we are all responsible" for the lamentable state of 
the Santiago River.  Javier Gutierrez Trevino, President of the 
Jalisco Council of Industrialists, leaped to the defense of the 
private sector, declaring that he would drink a shot of river 
water to prove it was not contaminated with industrial residue. 
Jalisco's Secretary of Health downplayed the pollution risks, 
and malicious rumors circulated from various sources that 
Miguel's death was really caused by domestic abuse, rather than 
toxic water. 
 
----------------------- 
The Tragic Truth 
----------------------- 
 
¶5.  These remarks served only to inflame public opinion still 
further, and helped keep the story alive.  Press commentators 
dismissed the government's statements, noting that the governor 
had diffused responsibility so broadly that no one could be held 
accountable.  The El Salto Chamber of Commerce undercut 
Gutierrez Trevino by acknowledging that less than half of the 
businesses in town had any kind of wastewater treatment system, 
and the media continues to hound him to carry out his 
ill-considered boast.  Municipal authorities admitted that none 
of the millions of gallons of sewage dumped into the Santiago 
watershed from the metropolitan area are treated or cleaned in 
any way.  Local farmers indicated that crops such as wheat will 
no longer grow close to the river because of the contamination. 
In one poll, 40 percent of El Salto residents claimed to suffer 
adverse health effects from the river. 
 
¶6.  As the media clamor grew, official fingerpointing began in 
earnest, with local, state, and federal entities scrambling to 
avoid blame for the situation.  The state's failure to utilize a 
credit line for building wastewater treatment plants offered by 
the Government of Japan in the late 1990s came in for particular 
criticism, with the ruling PAN and opposition PRI parties 
accusing each other of neglect and obstructionism for allowing 
the credit to expire unused.  Delegations of officials and 
politicians trooped out to the banks of the Santiago, where 
their remarks tended to be long on rhetoric and short on 
concrete ideas. 
 
---------------------------------- 
Covering Up the Problem 
---------------------------------- 
 
¶7.  The only "solution" announced so far by the Government is a 
plan to bury 3.5 kilometers of the Santiago River in large steel 
pipes underneath the most heavily populated areas of El Salto, 
to prevent more accidents of the kind that cost young Miguel 
Lopez his life.  Construction has already begun, and the 
 
GUADALAJAR 00000122  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
authorities hope to finish the project by the end of April.  At 
that point, while the river will be out of sight for a small 
portion of its length, its toxic waters will continue to flow 
untreated downstream.  The Governor also announced his intention 
to pursue construction of a wastewater treatment plant, but the 
director of the state Water Commission admitted it would be 2011 
at the earliest before a facility could be operational. 
 
-------------------- 
River of Death 
-------------------- 
 
¶8.  The 433 km long Santiago River begins in Lake Chapala and 
flows northwestward through Jalisco and Nayarit states to the 
Pacific Ocean.  With the exception of the area around 
Guadalajara, and a large hydroelectric dam in Nayarit, the lands 
it passes through are not highly developed.  The El Salto 
segment of the river is by far the most polluted, and the toxic 
mix of sewage, industrial waste, and agricultural run-off 
threatens to contaminate other ecosystems hundreds of kilometers 
downstream. 
 
¶9. The Consul General visited El Salto and the riverbank on 
March 7th.  The putrid smell was nearly overpowering and 
permeated several blocks beyond the river's edges.  Rusting 
55-gallon drums with unknown contents floated in the 
evil-looking black water.  Grayish-white foam covered the 
riverbanks below the town's namesake waterfall and drifted 
slowly downstream, 100 meters from an elementary school.  El 
Salto's Mayor, Joel Gonzalez Diaz, told the CG that during times 
of high water in the summer and fall, the noxious smell 
penetrates the entire downtown area. 
 
¶10.  Mayor Gonzalez (no relation to the Governor) is in a 
difficult position.  The dimensions of the ecological 
catastrophe are far beyond the resources of a small municipality 
to handle.  As the only PRI mayor in the metropolitan area, he 
has had a difficult time with the PAN-led State Government; he 
was publicly told to "buzz off" by the Governor when he asked 
for additional state resources six months ago.  Nevertheless, 
Gonzalez hopes to convince his fellow mayors to address the 
problem as a regional threat affecting the entire area. 
 
---------------------------------------- 
Comment:  A Tarnished "Pearl" 
---------------------------------------- 
 
¶11.  The tragic state of the Santiago River is not a new 
development; the contamination is the result of years of neglect 
by federal, state, and local authorities. No one has ever been 
held accountable, and not one business has ever been sanctioned 
for polluting the river.  It took the death of a child to 
finally galvanize the government into action, and even then, it 
remains to be seen whether the authorities will simply bury the 
problem without addressing its fundamental causes. 
 
¶12.  This is not the only environmental crisis that is causing 
Guadalajara's image as the "Pearl of the West" to lose some of 
its luster.  Increasingly severe air pollution that sometimes 
exceeds Mexico City levels (reftel) is another concern, as is 
the loss of open space and parkland to development.  Growing 
traffic congestion, the contamination of some local beef with 
the chemical clenbuterol, and the destruction of mangroves in 
coastal nature reserves are also worrisome.  The environment has 
never been a priority for Jalisco's governments, and the state's 
Environment Secretariat continues to receive a miniscule slice 
of the official budget.  Post will do what it can to assist and 
focus official attention on this subject, particularly during 
upcoming Earth Day events. 
RAMOTOWSKI