Puerto Vallarta streets are overflowing with trash because the city is unable to pay sanitation contractors an overdue balance of $30 million pesos.
The city operates six trash collection trucks but depends on contracted services to help with sanitation throughout the municipality. While unable to pay its bills, the city is utilizing their six trucks in the largest areas of trash producers, such as shopping malls and heavily populated restaurant areas, and trying to manage the residential areas when possible.
The current city administration has battled with poor budgeting and interruption of sanitation services in the city for several years, and just being reelected this month, the issue is unlikely to be solved in the near future.
Some residents have used their private trucks to transport trash to the city dump, while other areas have been piling up for a month. Currently an issue of concern is the spread of disease and breeding grounds for mosquitoes carrying the Dengue virus.
Trash baking for days in the summer heat also fills the city air with a foul odor and most piles are already infested with maggots and rodents.
The city claims to have 90% of the city collected, however for residents like Dulce Maria Flores who travels daily between downtown and Col. El Pregresso, that isn’t the case. ‘Respectfully, they are lying to the public. One only needs to look outside to see the enormous problem,’ said Flores.
This is becoming a real problem it seems, and certainly not good for attracting tourists. Please get busy Vallarta, and clean up this mess ASAP. I will not come back as long as the streets are littered with trash, and the air is foul with the odor of rotting garbage.