Playa del Carmen, Q.R. — A pilot project for the development of an organic waste treatment plant is in the works. Grupo Dakatso, a company that recycles the state’s sargassum, says they want the contract to contain sargassum in the upcoming season.
Dakatso made the announcement during a recent press conference in which they said the company wants the concession to contain and clean the large amounts of sargassum that is forecast to arrive along the coast this season.
Dagoberto Javier Ruiz Lavín, the Director of the Dakatso, says their project has a focus on a different form of sargassum treatment that does not involve taking sand using machines.
“Our aim is to offer a more suitable treatment process that doesn’t involve removing the beach sand with machines,” he said.
According to Ruiz Lavin, the project is being considered despite the multi-million pesos owed to the company by the municipalty of Solidaridad who they have sued for breach of contract.
The ongoing legal battle is for an outstanding debt from the 2018-2021 Beristain administration when company Arco, who charged the municipality more, was hired to collect the seaweed.
Company Arco was hired when the contracted company, Dakatso, was unable to collect the sargassum as agreed due to a lack of machinery. Ruiz Lavín says they are willing to work with the municipality to settle their disagreements.
Company Arco has since been blacklisted by the federal government for bad practices, while, as Ruiz Lavin points out, “Dakatso is still in force.”
“We are active. We have letters of references from the Hotel Association, the Navy Secretariat, the municipalities. We have all the approvals. We are local people, we live here, we do not come from outside, we want to help, to see a way to reach an agreement, we are not closed off.
“We are a company. We have workers, they are paid. We have knowledge of the area and we live here,” he said.
Ruiz Lavín said the new plant will be situated on a 5-hectare plot at the northern entrance to the city of Playa del Carmen. He says preparations are already underway for the collection of the sargassum in the upcoming season, which is forecast to be a heavy one.
