Here’s the latest from an internal meeting Friday:


Good afternoon,

I share a summary of the meeting held today with municipal and state authorities.

The meeting was held at 1 p.m.

Present were the municipal president, a commander who coordinates a Civil Protection area at the state government level and two researchers from the University Center of the coast, who made the diagnosis. Also one person from the Municipal Civil Protection, one person from those in charge of the Clearing Machinery. As well Josefina, Perla, Daniel and I, Moisés, were there.

The municipal president limited the meeting to the issue of clearing, because he had the concern, shared by the Commander, that the community did not want this to happen.

So the first thing we did was say that we did agree with the desilting, we just wanted it to be done properly, so that the problem in the stream would not increase, the effects of which we already know.

Then we introduced ourselves as a Committee, saying that we were part of a larger group and that we had carried out the beach cleaning activity before Easter, which involved about a hundred people, and that we were organized to promote action which would benefit the arroyo and the beach conditions.

The commander's position was in the sense that his area was going to verify that the desilting was carried out under the best conditions, because that could actually be a generator of the problem; Faced with this, the Municipal President proposed to carry out a tour the following week (Thursday he said, now we know it will be Tuesday), where the municipality, State Civil Protection and community representatives will see on the ground where and how to do the clearing.
It is important to say that the commander expressed doubts about whether the problem on the beach actually derived from the Arroyo, however he said that the desilting should be reviewed and know what the Diagnosis prepared by the UdG Center says.

The two researchers who were there intervened very punctually, and they explained why they considered that the desilting did influence the amount of stones on the beach, despite the fact that the diagnosis is preliminary.

Daniel put on the table the issue of the small square that is being built at the end of the arroyo and where it meets the sea, which would be a problem if all the stone and gravel material deposited there is not collected before the rains start.

The Municipal President said that the next work will be completed before the rains and that the company in charge already knows that it has to remove all the material that is not from the area.

Daniel also raised the problem of the material that year after year is placed in the path of the crocodile sanctuary .
Given this, the commander pointed out that it will be important to also study that area and act on the results.

So, in my opinion, a spirit of collaboration was created and that this is the beginning of a working process that leads us, as a population, to be very informed and involved in addressing the problem; such as the potential risks and the vulnerability the community encounters due to everything that being on the Coast implies, given the hurricanes.

And that for the part of the authorities; will be to meet their obligations and be attentive to the demands of the community. In this regard, the Commander even spoke of the need to make a Work Plan, which the Municipal President seconded by saying that this should consider a short, medium and long term Plan

We had a good meeting: the community's position was made known through this committee. They are interested in continuing to work despite the fact that the municipal government is leaving. They know that it is their obligation to continue working and leave everything ready because the wet season is coming. The commander warned us that July and August are going to be the months with the most water, so that can be more dangerous, which is why it is urgent to desilt.

In addition to the meeting next Tuesday, they committed to attending the public presentation of the diagnostic results on Thursday, June 6 at 6:30 p.m.