Scary!

I am curious as to how Zihuatanejo and Ixtapa were certified by Earth Watch as per this months Imagine newsletter.
I may be wrong and things may have changed....... Are there many more garbage bins on the beaches, or a recycle program in place, improved or new sewage or water treatment.? Was there even a education program on the negative effects of litter on the ocean and the living creatures in and around the water. Is garbage still burned near Ixtapa which as times can cause
respiratory issues for some? It would be a wonderfully positive difference for all residents if in fact some of these issues
have been acted on. I hope.....

Thank You
Irene

After reading the article, all I can say is typical for that e-zine they are more about feel-good BS and they simply aren't in touch with local reality. Not even close. The term "responsible tourism" has nothing to do with the reality that is Ixtapa.

No one is measuring anything with any semblance of reliability. Zihuatanejo is what it is. Ixtapa is what it is.

Our open-air garbage dump behind Ixtapa has been in violation of federal regulations for years, but instead of punishing the irresponsible public functionaries We The People get to pay the fines with no consequences to the city officials not fulfilling their responsibilities.

The over 6,000 units built by Casas Geo in Ixtapa dump their raw sewage into the pluvial canal that disembogues at Playa Linda. No other community in the region besides Zihuatanejo-Ixtapa even has a working wastewater treatment plant, and ours still have all kinds of problems.

For example, to my knowledge no one here has ever measured anything for the presence of heavy metals even though we have decades of people throwing their used batteries in the open-air dump that is obviously leeching poisons into the local aquifer. The only measurements made are for the presence of enterococcus bacteria. Not for toxins or chemicals or heavy metals. I doubt there is anyone in our municipal government who would even know to do these things, but I could be mistaken.

When the garbage dump catches fire, as it does frequently, it poses health problems for folks in the region. And of course the annual tlacolol burnings in the region and the sierra right before the rainy season sometimes make the place have an armageddon-like appearance.

Our half-hearted recycling programs are mostly recyclable plastics and aluminum, which of course is mostly carried out by pepenadores who rummage through the garbage on the street and at the city dump. Though of course as all residents are aware there is a lot of theft of copper wiring and tubing as well as manhole covers and signage and really any metal that isn't carefully guarded or extremely difficult to steal. Even our new streetlights along La Majahua road were ALL stolen once it was announced in local media they were worth something like 5,000 pesos each. Within 2 or 3 days they were all gone.

Zihuatanejo-Ixtapa remains a region of extreme poverty that suffers from extreme governmental neglect, though of course if you listen to the so called public functionaries you'll hear tales of miracles and wonder.