GRUPO PRO Sayulita- Water Update
(*As published from Pro Sayulita) GRUPO Sayulita has provided our community with the following update regarding the water situation here in Sayulita. These words and this update comes directly from GRUPO Sayulita:
Many of you know the Ejido leadership took over Sayulita’s water/sewer utility a few weeks ago, and removed the plant manager from his position. The plant’s employees remain at the plant and continue to operate it.
The former manager pushed back against his removal. His supporters, including some important members of the Ejido, held a rally at the baseball field. At the rally, the former manager touted his 18 year record of accomplishment at the plant. A counter-narrative appeared in the local press, decrying the plant’s history of mismanagement and corruption.
Following these developments the Ejido responded by appointing a new water council that includes a member of the Infrastructure Committee. We understand the Ejido plans to form a legal corporation (Asociacion Civil, or AC) to operate the utility, to hire an administrator and an accountant, and to establish a tax ID with the Mexican tax agency SAT. If successful, this will mean a legal non-profit Mexican corporation will operate Sayulita’s water/sewer utility, subject to oversight and public accounting for receipts and expenditures.
ProSayulita supports this plan and the appointment of a professional utility operator. We believe this will bring reliable delivery of water to all of Sayulita’s neighborhoods and end the sewage pollution of our beach.
In addition to the Ejido’s action, the state water agency CEA continues to make improvements to Sayulita’s sewage treatment plant, using government funds. They finished the concrete and stone river crossing connecting Calle Manuel Navarette to Avenida Palmar. They armored the north bank of the river with “baskets” filled with large rocks, and covered the river bed with reinforced cobblestones. This reinforcement may extend from the crossing to the beach.
CEA also began constructing a huge underground carcamo (holding tank) next to the plant. The tank may extend to nine meters below the surface, and will pump effluent into the plant for treatment at a precise rate. ProSayulita will cooperate with CEA on connecting the Gaviotas project to users and paving the broken areas of Manuel Navarette and Gaviotas.
We remind you that none of the improvements at the plant – including the removal of the former manager – would have taken place without ProSayulita’s pressuring the politicians with the Gaviotas project. The Gaviotas project was the catalyst for change at the plant. Thanks to your generous donations to the Infrastructure Fund, the plant’s ineffective manager was removed and there’s progress toward an end to sewage pollution and unreliable water delivery.
To raise money for new investments, ProSayulita will ask for your help when we need it. In the meantime, we will continue to update you on plans for the water/sewer utility and CEA’s progress on the plant. Follow us on Facebook, and thanks for supporting ProSayulita!
We will continue to update you as things progress at the plant.
*GRUPO PRO Sayulita
