Almost every night, César Rivera and his wife have to put up with the strong smell of gas emanating from a huge depot of empty cylinders near their apartment in Mexico City.
“The smell is so strong, so unbearable, that it looks like the stove is not properly closed,” said Mr. Rivera, 37, a resident of Huichapan, a popular district in the west of the capital.
Thousands of old cylinders are stored in the open air, in the middle of the district, show aerial images taken by AFP.
They occupy the land of a former refinery of the public oil company Pemex, closed in 1991 for environmental reasons.
The cylinders with a capacity of 20 to 30 liters of LP gas belong to the company Gas Bienestar, which plans to recycle or destroy them.
– Risks –
In January, Mexico City authorities assured that Pemex would remove these LP gas residues, which contain butane and propane.
“Civil protection has already come; she saw no risk. But anyway we make sure to take into account the doubts and problems of the inhabitants, ”said Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum at the time.
The Gas Bienestar company did not respond to AFP’s request for maintenance, as did Civil Protection.
“We want to vomit, with strong headaches,” says another resident, José Juan Macias, 44, whose carpentry works alongside the old factory. The windows remain closed in the afternoon, despite the heat.
The authorities “say that nothing is happening,” he continues. “But we all think there is some danger. So we are careful not to light anything when it smells strong, lest there be an explosion”.
– Pollution –
Firefighters from a nearby station receive daily reports of gas leaks, but in reality it is from the cylinders.
“We went to the site of the old refinery, but they don’t care about us,” says barracks manager César Suárez, who says the lack of information and coordination limits the possibilities of a plan. emergency.
LP gas residues can contaminate soil, according to Ricardo Torres of the Institute of Atmospheric Sciences at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM).
“It’s a time bomb,” concludes César Rivera, the carpenter.