• HELLS: Industrial activity has transformed at least six regions in Mexico into real “environmental hells” with extreme air, soil and water pollution problems according to Victor Manuel Toledo, the country’s Minister of the Environment. Most of these regions are in Central Mexico.
• DISEASE: “We are practically facing situations that I have called ‘environmental hells’. The health problems that are triggered here are terrible, children with lead, cancer problems, kidney problems, etc.”, said Toledo during a press conference with President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
• REGIONS: The problematic areas mentioned by Toledo are: the Tula region in Hidalgo, the Independence Basin in Guanajuato, the Atoyac Basin in Puebla and Tlaxcala, the municipalities of Juanacatlán and El Salto, both in Jalisco and the Coatzacoalcos metro area in Veracruz.
• TULA: The Tula region in Hidalgo faces a myriad of pollution challenges derived from several sources including receiving the sewage waters from Mexico City. 70% of Tula’s water was deemed as “highly contaminated”, per a 2012 Inter-American Development Bank study.
