Chapala’s 2018-2021 administration has formed the Ecology and Sustainable Development Advisory Council, established Tuesday, July 10 with representatives of the municipality’s academic and business sectors, civil associations and City Hall officials.
The council’s mission is to evaluate, plan and promote projects and proposals that will foster conservation of natural resources in the municipality’s process of development. Chapala Mayor Moisés Anaya pointed to the current revision of the municipal ecology regulations, installation of solar energy systems and LED lighting in government buildings, the Ajijic recycling program and reforestation efforts as a few examples of the sort of undertakings that can put Chapala on the national map as a model community for following sustainable practices.
As council chair, the mayor swore in the directors of upper level educational institutions, a spokesperson for a leading commercial industry and the director of the Lake Chapala Intermunicipal Association for Environmental Protection, along with chiefs of municipal government’s departments of ecology, urban planning, medical services, transit, public security and information systems, and the head of the city council’s ecology commission. Representatives of the local branch of Jalisco’s Colegio de Arquitectos and other NGOs interested in participating will be brought aboard in the future.
Chapala’s 2004-2006 administration launched the Ecology and Tourism Council which involved local, state and federal officials, the commercial sector and environmental activists in promoting the achievement of similar goals. The initiative quietly fizzled out nine years ago.