Guadalajara residents stop waiting and clean a toxic river with eggshells

[Judi Lynn]

Looks can be deceiving: the Santiago River looks ideal for swimming, fishing and more, but the polluted water is deadly.

Fed up with government inaction, local activists are trying out an organic solution

By John Pint

I live in a rural community eight kilometers west of Guadalajara. One day, this post appeared in our local chat forum:

“Save your eggshells! Don’t wash them! I will be collecting them regularly for the Santiago-Lerma Clean Water Project.”

That got my attention because I’ve long been concerned about the abominable state of both the Lerma River, which flows into Lake Chapala, and the Santiago, which flows out of it. I was delighted that people in my own community were suddenly trying to do something to clean them up … but with eggshells?

For every project, there is, of course, a Facebook page. Searching for h2oJalisco, I soon found myself talking to Bernardo Galán, a Guadalajara representative of this new movement. I asked him to explain what they were up to.

“This is a project that started out for the purpose of obtaining acceptable water from the Lerma River and is now focusing on the Santiago,” he said. “It’s nonprofit and apolitical. To make this happen, we are attempting to collect four tonnes of eggshells, four tonnes of quicklime (cal in Spanish) and four tonnes of magnesium oxide.

More:
https://mexiconewsdaily.com/mexicolife/cleaning-a-river-with-eggshells/