In Chiapas, you only need to walk 15 minutes from the center of any city to discover the other side of urbanism: neighborhoods without drainage, subdivisions without water, dirt roads that turn into mud pits, and promises of paving that never arrive. This is the scenario experienced on the outskirts of Tuxtla, Tapachula, San Cristóbal, and many other cities.
For years, local governments have allowed urbanization to advance without planning, without services, and without clear rules, while construction companies build homes where there is no electricity or drainage. Thousands of families live in areas that have grown unregulated, and until now, no one in the public sphere has been willing to assume this responsibility.
But something has changed—at least on paper. The State Congress has just created a new entity: the Special Commission for Metropolitan Zones, a body that claims to monitor, evaluate, and propose solutions to uncontrolled urban growth. It is not a public works department or an executive agency. Nor does it have machinery or brigades. Its tools will be review, denunciation, and, if it chooses, political pressure.
How much will it be able to do?
The decree that created this Commission grants it the power to:
Observe and supervise how cities grow and what projects are being carried out (or abandoned).
Propose changes to urban laws that currently allow developments without basic services.
Call public officials accountable who fail to fulfill their duties in metropolitan areas.
Promote agreements between metropolitan municipalities that until now have worked separately.
And among its most controversial powers is the power to reactivate forgotten metropolitan bodies, such as the Metropolitan Development Councils, and to interfere in any urban matter entrusted to it by Congress. In other words, it could interfere where no one has wanted to, if there is political will.
And how does this help people?
In practice, this Commission could become a point of pressure to stop the construction of subdivisions without services, to ensure that the resources allocated for public works are used where they are most needed, and to design a more just urban future. But only if it truly works, if it doesn’t become another office of pretty speeches and repetitive diagnoses.
Because the people in the neighborhoods no longer need more diagnoses. They need water, streets, electricity, and decent transportation.
The chaos that no one wanted to see
Tuxtla Gutiérrez, for example, lacks a clear metropolitan policy. What happens in Chiapa de Corzo, Berriozábal, or San Fernando has a direct impact on the capital, but each municipality continues to act independently, as if their problems were not connected.
Tapachula is experiencing a similar phenomenon: new subdivisions without even sidewalks, and public works that emerge without any sense of the urban context.
This Commission is late, yes, but at least it recognizes that there is an underlying problem. And if you decide to take it seriously, it could make more than one person uncomfortable.
Source: alertachiapas
