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Mexico, Coca-Cola, Potable Water and Diabetes


Bisbee Gal

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Interesting article in NYT. 

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/14/world/americas/mexico-coca-cola-diabetes.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

 

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Potable water is increasingly scarce in San Cristóbal de las Casas, a picturesque mountain town in the southeastern state of Chiapas where some neighborhoods have running water just a few times a week, and many households are forced to buy extra water from tanker trucks.

So, many residents drink Coca-Cola, which is produced by a local bottling plant, can be easier to find than bottled water and is almost as cheap.

In a country that is among the world’s top consumers of sugary drinks, Chiapas is a champion: Residents of San Cristóbal and the lush highlands that envelop the city drink on average more than two liters, or more than half a gallon, of soda a day.

The effect on public health has been devastating. The mortality rate from diabetes in Chiapas increased 30 percent between 2013 and 2016, and the disease is now the second-leading cause of death in the state after heart disease, claiming more than 3,000 lives every year.

 

 

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Doesn't Coca-Cola either bottle or distribute bottled water? The same truck we get our Coca-Cola and Sprint, we get our bottled water.  The bottled water in the large bottle is 32 pesos.  That much Coca-Cola is much more expensive.  Also, I don't anyone that drinks tap water.

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I have lived in San Cristobal for the last 10 years and have notice no change in the delivery of water. We never had potable water either and the streams have been filled with garbage rats and sewer ever since we have lived here.. The article is misleading and does not address the problem.  A very poor and ignorant population that is poluting the water,  aging systems delivering water, poor storage capacity of water storage in the house for the amount of water delivery and a huge amoung of loss of water in the delivering of water.

A few years ago  we ran out of water at the house and the whole barrio was without water for a couple of months. We were out of water at our house for a month and the barrio organized to get the water company to fix the problem. I found out that the water was delivered only at night and 3 times a week at max..

There was some kind of pluf in our area and as we are on a hill the water did not reach the top of the hill..The problem was not due to a lack of water but  to a poorly maintain system. We also found out that many people do not have a 10 peso floater that shuts off when the tinaco is full and that people to save on the installation get up at night to turn off the water when the tinaco is full. It goes without saying that most people do not wake up and let the tinaco overflow until the morning when the water shuts off.

Another time we had no water was because many hotels in the center do not pay the bills so the water company quit paying CFE and had no electricity to run the pumps delivering water.. this was they were not cutting of the water to the center and on and on..

The water at the start maybe potable but it is not when it arrives .. Some people  may drink the water but I see that all my neighbors buy water from the  trucks and they told me not to do not drink the water wether it is chlorinated or not I do not smell the cloro but I have a large aljibe , friend with small tinaco told me the smell of the clorine in the water was very strong. I do not drink tap water  in Mexico anywhere..

Cocacola is part of the traditional rituals in Chamula and other indigenous communities and also part of all fiesta and gathering amongst the  Evangelists who do not drink alcohol but there are tons of other soft drinks that are just as bad. There is no lack of bottle water  so the drinking of CocaCola is a cultural things not due to a lack of potable water as there is plenty of bottle water available.

People here love to blame the CocaCola plant for the water it uses in the plant but the fact is  that they use the water from a different source than the water company so they have no effect on the water delivery. 

Right now we have a lack of rain but there as been no change in the delivery system so far..

The streams going through San Cristobal are a disgrace, full of rats , sewage and rats but I was in Central Chiapas  this week end  on the bank of a river in an isolated area and the river banks had garbage and smelled of black water although the water was clear..  The government can be blame for a lot of problems but the fact is that people are the filthhy ones dumping their garbage on the streets , in the rivers and so on.. Instead of bitching about the government people should start caring about preserving their resources and protecting the environement.. Do not start me on  my soap box..This month.  I have been travelling a lot in isolated areas far from towns and garbage is everywhere...

 

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2 hours ago, bmh said:

Maybe.. yes thre is lots of garbage ending up in the water in many places but I have been to a lot of out in the ay places in The western US and Europe and I have rarely seen the amount of garbage I saw this week..

I guess that not very many of the people from Chiapas migrate north to the US, right?

 

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14 hours ago, bmh said:

Maybe.. yes thre is lots of garbage ending up in the water in many places but I have been to a lot of out in the ay places in The western US and Europe and I have rarely seen the amount of garbage I saw this week..

 I recently had a house guest from Prague and she was quite shocked at the garbage everywhere. I've often seen brand new SUV's full of well-dressed Tapatios tossing their empty coke cans and chip bags out the window on the side of the road. They don't even have the excuse that they're uneducated. Pretty disgusting behavior, and not just to foreigners. I know environmentally aware Mexicans who not only never do such things, but have said they're disgusted by how most Mexicans don't take the least bit of pride in keeping their country clean, and what an embarrassment they find it.

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12 hours ago, mudgirl said:

 I recently had a house guest from Prague and she was quite shocked at the garbage everywhere. I've often seen brand new SUV's full of well-dressed Tapatios tossing their empty coke cans and chip bags out the window on the side of the road. They don't even have the excuse that they're uneducated. Pretty disgusting behavior, and not just to foreigners. I know environmentally aware Mexicans who not only never do such things, but have said they're disgusted by how most Mexicans don't take the least bit of pride in keeping their country clean, and what an embarrassment they find it.

A lot of them do have pride.

We live in a row house so many people walk by the house. We leave an old garbage out front. Many people will drop in their cans wrappers as they walk by. I have actually seen kids run across the street to throw something away. Only time we have trash is when it is blown in.

 

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Well  Tiny you are lucky because it is not the norm in Mexico. It seems to depends on the neighborhoods and the towns. I spend a lot of time in Teotitlan del Valle Oaxaca and it is one of the cleanest place I have seen anywhere. It is an indigenous town that washes the stallas in the market everyday with chlorine. THey recycle their garbage. Styrofoan and throw away stuff is not sold in town but I have seen more dirty places than clean ones. I have seen rich and poor throw their garbage out on the street without a thought. My next door neighbor runs a clinic and their patients arrive with all their family, they all eat as they wait for the women to deliver and throw all the garbage on the street and the wind blows it right down the street. City workers clean the street and we clean in front of the house but when ther eis wind it is a losing battle, all that stuff ends up in the river s when it rains and cause innondations as well as it plyfs the sewers.

Some Mexicans are apalled but many of them seems to think their car is more important than the roads or the streets.

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40 minutes ago, bmh said:

Well  Tiny you are lucky because it is not the norm in Mexico. 

Even with my 20 years of living and traveling Mexico I could  not tell you what the norm is. There is only one place in the world that I have been to that didn't  have a trash problem, that was Singapore. 

Do you think that Mexico is the only place that people throw trash out of the car window? 

Why do you think that some US states have a deposit on soda bottles? 

One problem here and other places is that cities don't have or don't have enough public trash cans.

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Singapore hs draconian lays and the places in Europe that are super clean also have heavy fines .. but franjly I do not care about them I live in Mexico and find that some places are appalling. Trash cans have nothing to do with it when people are throwing trash out of the car windows.

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The public trash  cans could help with people walking on the sidewalk.  I see it every day. 

Do  you recycle?  We separate bag our plastic  and glass and set it out on the curb. There is always someone to collect it. 

But if you want to keep with negative thoughts and ideas.

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Negative thoughts?? Pretty funny.. I was in a very remote area that was magnificent and was surrounded by garbage that people had thrown out and that  had ended up in this beautiful place . Also the river look pristine and smelled bad, I realized a ditch with black water was going right into it.. O am happy for you if you hve positive thought whe you see that kinfdo f situation but I was with 10 other people  all indignous and they were also shocked by what they saw , I guess they had negative thoughts as well and should really change their attitude..

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If you want to change anything, you have to start with the children learning it in school. That's how the recycling program took off in Canada in the late eighties. They bug their parents to do the right thing. And a lot of kids were also responsible for bugging their parents to stop smoking.

I have only lived in three states in Mexico, Guanajuato, Nayarit and Jalisco. Of the three, Jalisco has the most trash blowing around. Doing something for someone (like picking up their trash) does not get the message across. Teach the children.

For the last 22 years of living in Mexico, I have always separated my trash but, with the spiffy new compactor, they just throw everything in there together. Sigh.

And if you want to see filth, check out the Pacific beaches after Easter. Disgusting and the reason why the Annual Clean the Beach takes place shortly after.

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8 hours ago, Tiny said:

A lot of them do have pride.

We live in a row house so many people walk by the house. We leave an old garbage out front. Many people will drop in their cans wrappers as they walk by. I have actually seen kids run across the street to throw something away. Only time we have trash is when it is blown in.

 

Are you talking about Lakeside, or another area of Mexico? Often what you say doesn';t seem to apply here?

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1 hour ago, Hud said:

Are you talking about Lakeside, or another area of Mexico? Often what you say doesn';t seem to apply here?

What forum are we in? Mexico General There are other places besides Lakeside

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Interesting. I live at the top of Juarez in Ajijic. And above and on one side of my house are the woods that go up the mountain. A couple of days ago, I noticed that someone had pounded a pipe into the side of an exterior wall of mine next to a trail leading up into the mountain.

Guess what? Now some folks rather than simply throwing garbage into the streets are filling a small shopping bag  that was placed on the pipe. Maybe I can do my part by placing an empty bag on the pipe, should the full bag be taken away.

I am posting this in the Mexico General section because this idea might be used anywhere not just lakeside.

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47 minutes ago, johanson said:

Maybe I can do my part by placing an empty bag on the pipe, should the full bag be taken away

If you do your part, put a small hole in the bag when you put a new one out. If not, rain water could make a bigger mess.

 

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