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| Survivors camp out in Totomixtlahuaca, Guerrero. Photo: Ezequiel Flores |
Proceso: Ezequiel Flores Contreras
Translated by Sally SewardTotomixtlahuaca, Guerrero- "If the river didn't take us, now the sicknesses are going to kill us," laments Rocío Galindo Juárez while she nurses the smallest of her eight children in the facilities of a school building that is still being constructed, where 130 people are piled in together, mostly minors.
In Totomixtlahuaca, the consumption of contaminated water and the persistent rains are provoking gastrointestinal and respiratory sicknesses among the people who lost their houses and are living out in the open without government help.
The town's doctor, Manuel Ortiz Hernández, pointed out that children are the most affected group; for that reason, he urged that clean drinking water and medicine such as Ambroxol be sent, in hopes of keeping the problem from increasing in this community in the municipality of Tlacoapa.
He also denied that two children in the area have died from scorpion bites during the time when there were no doctors, as the president of the DIF in Tlacoapa, Asunción Galindo Candia, reported.
Ortiz Hernández said that they only work with basic medicines, and they do not have the equipment or the instruments needed to respond to emergencies.
For this reason, they are sending those who are very sick to the Tlapa hospital, such as Raymunda Cruz, age 60, who is suffering from sharp muscle pains and hopes to be evacuated by helicopter because the roads are still destroyed. Using a wheelbarrow, relatives of the indigenous woman moved her to Totomixtlahuaca on a semi-destroyed road which they travelled on for two hours, which with normal road conditions would have taken half an hour.
Interviewed at the Health Center, Manuel Ortiz reported that he had just arrived on Sunday the 22nd, that is to say, a week after the Temiaco River devastated a quarter of the town and left dozens of victims who lost their homes.
He also pointed out that he and a nurse were brought to the town aboard a private helicopter paid for by family members of the inhabitants of Totomixtlahuaca, who live in different parts of the country as well as outside of Mexico. The government authorities limited themselves to authorizing that the doctor and two nurses be sent, but they have not taken responsibility for the transfer.
In this place, for three days, a doctor and three nurses--one of whom was already in the community--are tending to a population of at least 3,000 people made up of the residents of Totomixtlahuaca and at least nine neighboring communities.
Up until now they have diagnosed 55 minors with respiratory infections and four with diarrhea, the doctor indicated. He considered that the low number of gastrointestinal illnesses is due to the fact that the people are chlorinating and boiling their water.
Nevertheless, he said that each day supplies are scarce, apart from the fact that the people who lost their houses survive in unsanitary conditions. Some of the victims are taking refuge in school buildings, the houses of relatives and precarious camps on the mountain.
For this reason, he warned against the shortage of water and considers it urgent that good drinking water be sent to the area, due to the fact that the settlers make due with natural springs and gullies that are contaminated and that could complicate the situation.
This situation is made even more difficult because the roads and the federal highway between Tlapa and Marquelia are still destroyed, and supplies can only be sent by air.
Faced with the absence of government help, Judith Maldonado Gregorio called on the family members living in other parts of the country or outside of Mexico to continue helping the Totomixtlahuanquenses.
She also said that although the damage from Tropical Storm Manuel did not result in the loss of human lives, for those who lost everything the situation is still distressing.
The Me'paa [indigenous] woman explains that the river devoured her house along with 40 others, and that the homes of her siblings, Esther and Luis, are about to collapse, along with 80 other buildings.
Therefore, for more than a week they have been living with relatives and up until now they do not know if the authorities are going to implement a mechanism for relocation and financing for the reconstruction of houses.
The drama in Totomixtlahuaca, just like in dozens of other towns in the mountains of the state of Guerrero, is reaching critical levels, since the rains are not stopping, the roads are still destroyed and help from the government is simply not seen in the communities. Spanish Original