Thousands of Mexicans were shocked when they discovered that their river disappeared overnight.
It is believed that the Atoyak River, which is the only source of water for the 10 thousandth state of Veracruz, disappeared into a crack after the earthquake.
Residents of the village of San Fermina, next to which a crack has formed, claim that they heard a roar at night and felt the earth tremble. Local resident Juana Sanchez said: “At first we found that there was no water flowing from the tap, went outside and saw a crack in the river bed where the water was flowing.”
The head of the Emergency Situations and Civil Protection Department, Ricardo Masa Limon, confirmed that the crack in the river was the result of a geological fault. Local officials said the crack, which begins 3 kilometers from the river's source and is about 30 meters wide, continues to widen and create new cracks.
Prior to this, the Atoyak River fed the larger Kotakstla River, where the water level dropped below normal. The river supplied water to thousands of families, as well as sugar plantations that provided income for most of the local residents. At the moment, work is underway to solve the problem with a catastrophic shortage of water.
Voronina Svetlana