Photo by Alasdair Baverstock
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One businessman who doesn’t let the flooding get in the way of work is Roman Iniesta.He owns a garage next to one of Iztapalapa’s main artery, a speedy boulevard known as Eje 8 that turns into a river when the rains come.
Iztapalapa, although the city’s largest borough, is often neglected by the municipal government due to its impoverished aspect, said Alejandra Boites, a spokeswoman for public security in the Iztapalapa borough government.
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One solution to this problem might be Urban Island, a Mexico City company that installs rainwater catchment systems for the roofs of houses. Urban Island has installed more than 1,000 of these systems since 2009, but it remains sorely marginalized in most of the dialogue in Mexico about how to manage the flooding problems during the greater rainy season.The system’s cost and installation fee is $600, far too costly for the majority of Iztapalapa’s residents to place themselves.According to Antonio Cervantes Lozada, a spokesman for the small company, Urban Island is in talks with the Iztapalapa government to install subsidized systems in the most affected areas.“It’s a benefit to a household,” Lozada said. “But it often happens that if the system has been installed for free, then the house owners don’t recognize its value and take no care of it. … We need to strike the balance.”