By Uriel Sanchez
ACAPULCO, Mexico (Reuters) – The coastline of famed Mexican beach resort Acapulco was sullied late last week by a large discharge of raw sewage, the ugly scene captured in a viral video, which has prompted local authorities to promise an investigation and to fix its broken drainage system.
The video taken from a nearby balcony shows a high-pressure stream of raw sewage from a hose flowing into the water from just off of Acapulco’s Icacos Beach, which is especially popular with Mexican tourists.
“It was very stinky and made me nauseous,” an eyewitness who asked to remain anonymous told Reuters.
The eyewitness said the filthy discharge lasted about 25 minutes.
State environmental authorities announced on Sunday that an investigation into the incident, which it said took place on June 25, has been launched and a formal complaint filed with Mexico’s federal environmental prosecutor.
State officials said that initial reports indicate that the discharge may have been related to a problem with overflowing sewers potentially made worse by heavy rainfall in recent days which has caused flooding in several Acapulco neighborhoods.
Officials added that specialists have been dispatched to the area to clean nearby drainage channels.
The sun-kissed beach destination nestled on Mexico’s Pacific Coast has been hobbled in recent years by raging gangland violence that has driven away most international tourists and more recently by an acute coronavirus outbreak.
(Reporting by Uriel Sanchez; Writing by David Alire Garcia; Editing by Daniel Flynn and Lisa Shumkaer)
