MERIDA'S INFRASTRUCTURE: THE SEWER SYSTEM

I could make this blog extremely brief by merely saying “MERIDA DOES NOT HAVE A SEWER SYSTEM”! None at all! Period. End of story. End of blog.

However, that might leave you wondering what in the world does Merida, population 1,000,000, and growing, do with all its sewage!?! To understand the answer to that question, you need to understand a little about the geography and hydrogeology of the Yucatan Peninsula. Quite basically, the entire peninsula is nothing but pure limestone rock with a water table at approximately 20 – 25 feet down. There are parts of the peninsula that do not even have a viable layer of topsoil!

The entire city and surrounding areas use the septic system. Septic tanks are usually hand dug to a depth of approximately 3 – 5 meters (11 feet – 18 feet) deep, just above the water table. Wastewater is emptied into the septic tank and the water and waste material dissipates and filters through the limestone eventually leeching back into the water table. While this system is crude, it is functional. However, with an ever increasing population, there is great concern that the aquifer will become so polluted that it would be impossible to provide safe water to the residents. This fact, coupled with the ever increasing growth of the porcine and chicken farm industry, is a major concern to all involved. It is also the reason you cannot drink the water when you go to Mexico! You must buy and drink only bottled water that has been processed and purified. http://www.springerlink.com/content/w384640u4857327v/

The tourist industry in the Yucatan has spawned both commercial and residential growth in previously undeveloped land areas. The hotels and resorts that are springing up along the coastlines are now required to have wastewater collection and treatment systems. However, the support towns that grow around these resorts have few urban services such as piped drinking water or wastewater collection and treatment systems. The probability of contamination to the water table has become another major concern for the government and environmentalists, and for those of us that live here.

Some newer hotels and large stores in Merida have their own waste management and treatment systems in place and it is permissible to flush paper products down the toilet. This is not so in the vast majority of homes and other businesses, including restaurants. Absolutely no paper products are permitted. To do so would clog the septic system and require a very nasty, almost unforgiving, project of having it cleaned out.

Some newer homes being built have a separate special concrete holding tank for “agua negra” (sewage just from toilets), while other wastewater is directed into a regular septic tank. Both systems drain the water back into the ground, filtered through the limestone, but the special concrete holding tank requires cleaning out once every few years. Not really a viable option in my opinion.

So, until the government and city engineers come up with a more acceptable system, visitors, and we who choose to live here, have to deposit our paper products in (hopefully) covered trash receptacles in the bathrooms! No flushing the toilet tissue down the toilet! This is one of the most difficult things most folks have to adapt to. Some see it as utterly disgusting, but really, it is an absolute necessary evil. But if you think that practice is bad, have your septic tank cleaned out just once and you’ll be more than happy to comply with the (unwritten) rules!

You know the old cliché, “when in Rome, do as the Romans do”!

Only drink purified, bottled water and don’t flush that toilet tissue (or any other paper product) down the toilet because Merida does not have a sewer system!! None at all! Period. End of story. End of blog.