Mexico: O'odham nation fights toxic waste dump

The Tohono O'odham indigenous people are counting the days to the October expiry date of the permit granted to a toxic waste management company for a landfill dump in their territory, in the northern Mexican state of Sonora. In October 2005, the environment and natural resources ministry (SEMARNAT) authorised CEGIR, a private company, to operate a hazardous waste disposal site known as La Choya in the municipality of General Plutarco Elías Calles, 2,200 kilometres north of the Mexican capital. But the dump, with a capacity for 45,000 tonnes of waste a year, was prevented from operating by the municipal council's refusal to accept it, combined with the opposition of the local community and non-governmental organisations. "It's a clear-cut case of environmental injustice," Marisa Jacott, an activist with the Fronteras Comunes (Common Borders) organisation that has fought the toxic waste dump, told IPS. "But now there's a chance that the permit will not be renewed." The Tohono O'odham nation, numbering some 12,000 people, straddles the Mexico-U.S. border, living in Sonora and the U.S. state of Arizona.