A ground-breaking drainage project in downtown Monterrey has created a sustainable blueprint for rainwater re-use, which experts hope can be replicated to help tackle the joint challenges of urban regeneration and water-scarcity across Mexico.
Monterrey is the capital of Nuevo Leon state in the north east of Mexico. With a population of 4 million it is the third biggest city in Mexico. In the arid northern regions of the country, water scarcity is becoming an increasing problem caused by over-extraction from underground aquifers.
In an ambitious social rehabilitation project, 1.5 hectares (3.7 acres) of abandoned street islands running along eight blocks of Monterrey’s main Edison Avenue close to the city center have been transformed from hot-spots of crime and deprivation into a meeting point for the local community including sports facilities and children’s play areas.
With a catchment basin of 540,000m² (133 acres) draining almost 300,000m3 (10,500,000 cubic feet) of rainwater, the area was prone to heavy flooding and subject to pollution from trash and other floatable debris as well as from hydrocarbons carried in the runoff during storm periods.
A solution designed and built by Soluciones Hidropluviales of Mexico City pioneered the use of stormwater treatment technologies from Hydro International in combination with stormwater storage to recycle rainwater, irrigate the islands and plant a green corridor of 170 oak trees.
The project employs a novel concept using Hydro vortex separation technologies (Fig.2) to clean runoff upstream of two retention tanks, explains Alberto Burgoa, President and CEO of Soluciones Hidropluviales, who are Hydro International’s stormwater product distributors in Mexico.
