Urban problems
urban poverty
The formation of irregular settlements in Mexico has been a very complex topic of economic and social study closely related to the policies managed in the country. Normally, these types of settlements lack infrastructure and basic services such as drinking water, drainage, electricity, and telephone in their beginnings. Over time, they are provided with services through self-construction and community cooperation since the majority of their inhabitants come from rural areas of the country.
Its residents exist in a permanent state of legal and social insecurity as they live on land without the consent of its true owners and are subject to threats of eviction and the denial of municipal services such as drinking water, garbage collection, storm drainage, street paving and public transportation, and lighting, among others.
They are frequently located in risk areas subject to environmental degradation and dangers. The implementation of basic services is complicated by its lack of urban planning and design, in addition to its accelerated growth. Residents normally lack sufficient educational preparation and therefore it is not common for them to be involved in formal economic activities or at the level of the surrounding labor market.
Its inhabitants have higher risks of contracting diseases and higher mortality due to their levels of poverty and the negative influence of the environment where they reside. Access to urban facilities such as schools, clinics, and social care is very limited. Public open space may be unsafe and insufficient for community needs. Finally, the visible disparity between informal settlements and surrounding areas can lead to social tensions and generate crime. These same factors can also increase social and economic exclusion.
Road and circulation problems
In recent years, Mexican political activism has taken a leading role in the development of cities, the government tries to politically control the road works of municipalities and states with large high-speed roads that affect the urban image, cause more accidents, increase air pollution and create social segregation between those who can pay for better transportation and those who cannot pay tolls, those who suffer long hours of travel from their home to the work area, generating health problems.
Municipalities and state governments have not been able to reduce the problem of air pollution due to the increase in mobile units and a lack of vision of easy movement around the city without having to use cars. The not circulating today programs have not had the desired success because another car can be easily acquired; The indiscriminate use of the automobile has become very fixed among Mexican society as an adoption of customs and stereotypes from the United States. Road axes are an ideal pretext for municipalities and delegations to verify expenses during their government period, generating 30% of greenhouse gases and to which thousands of deaths a year are also attributed due to accidents and reckless driving at high speeds. The only beneficiaries up to this point have been the rulers, the automotive industry, the construction industry, housing developers and political parties.
Mexico is one of the ten countries with the highest mortality rates worldwide linked to road problems. The main victims caused by traffic accidents are pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists. Existing institutions such as the National Accident Prevention Council (CONAPRA)&action=edit&redlink=1 "National Accident Prevention Council (CONAPRA) (not yet drafted)"), dependent on the Ministry of Health and the Pedestrian League, are responsible for raising awareness among the population about road safety, through statistical work and action interventions to improve it. The number of accidents, injuries and deaths increases in certain seasons such as Easter and holiday periods.
The main causes of death worldwide, the Report on the Global Status of Road Safety 2015") of the World Health Organization (WHO) "World Health Organization (WHO)") lists "Trauma caused by traffic" in first place. In the same report, figures are shown in which 22% of the population who suffer from it are pedestrians.[9].
In 2008, statistics show that the population that suffers the most from this is the young population between 15 and 34 years old, with 51.5%.
In 2010, road accidents were the tenth cause of death.[10] In 2013, statistics show a total of 470 thousand accidents annually in the country.
The main states in which the highest number of deaths occur are: State of Mexico, Jalisco, Mexico City, Guanajuato, Michoacán, Puebla, Chihuahua, Sonora, Oaxaca and Veracruz.[11].
Riesgos y vulnerabilidad
No human settlement is free from suffering some misfortune or loss of human life as a result of natural disasters or social conflicts. Many cities in Mexico have experienced social unrest, wars, floods, landslides, fires and earthquakes over the centuries.
One of the events that has most affected and modified the behavior of Mexicans in reaction to natural phenomena has been the earthquake that occurred in 1985, leaving collapsed buildings that had structures that were inadequate for clay soils, mainly due to corruption and poor legislative planning; the majority of the collapsed buildings were of recent construction. The government's negligence and its poor public order policies in the face of an emergency were the main cause of a huge number of deaths in Mexico City. Very old structures appropriate to the type of clay terrain, such as the Metropolitan Cathedral of Mexico City, the National Palace "Palacio Nacional (Mexico)") and the National Monte de Piedad building (dating back to the colonial era), withstood the earthquake because they had thick stone and brick walls with empirical and technological knowledge as the city was founded on a seismic and volcanic zone. Although the expert reports showed that most of the collapsed buildings had specifications lower than those required in the contracts, no one was found guilty and several construction experts were covered up. Particularly serious was the case of the state construction company in charge of building schools, whose directors went unpunished, despite the high number of destroyed primary schools and schoolchildren who were killed. The most affected places were mainly schools and hospitals, also buildings and hotels that had recently been completed and the misfortune was alarming internationally because these types of buildings are reused after the emergency.
The exact number of victims has never been known due to the censorship imposed by the government of Miguel de la Madrid, but it is estimated that they were 6,000 to 7,000 people. International aid was initially rejected by the president. By order of the first lady, the plane and international aid managed to enter the city to support the Mexican rescue forces who, given the magnitude of the disaster, could not cope at that time.
The Latin American Tower was an exceptional case of engineering because this earthquake did not cause any damage. As a consequence, twelve of the multifamily buildings in the Nonoalco Tlatelolco Urban Complex and nine in the Juárez Multifamiliar had to be demolished; In the following six months, more than 152 buildings throughout the city were demolished. 2,388,144 m³ of debris were collected; Just to clear 103 roads considered priority, 1,500,000 tons of debris were removed to facilitate the movement of humanitarian aid.
More than one million electricity service users were left without basic services. Among the damages to this service are 1,300 transformers, 5 transmission lines, 8 substations and 600 light poles. The Metro Collective Transportation System was affected in 32 stations. Most resumed service on the subsequent days of that month, however the Isabel la Católica station "Isabel la Católica (station)") did not do so until November 4 of that year. The old "Route 100" bus service operated free of charge during the city's recovery. Health alerts went off, one of the most significant being the presence of blood (from earthquake victims) in samples of drinking water throughout the city's network.