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Deep below the streets of Mexico City, Julio Cesar Cu is hard at work swimming in dark sewer waters in a diving helmet and dry suit, surrounded by rats, feces and condoms.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a dirty job, but someone\u2019s got to do it.<\/p>\n
For the past 30 years, the 53-year-old has plunged below the grimy surface to unclog drains with his hands, a crucial task to ensure the system runs smoothly for more than 20 million people producing 12,700 tons of waste per day.<\/p>\n
Sometimes, he makes grim discoveries, like dead bodies floating down the tunnel.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can find anything you could imagine down here, from plastic bags to car parts,\u201d Cu said before plunging 8 meters below street level at a pumping station.<\/p>\n
He became the mega-city\u2019s lone sewer diver when his two other colleagues quit for fresher air five years ago, although he now has two apprentices learning the ropes for a risky job that pays $480 per month.<\/p>\n
\u201cSomeone has to do this work,\u201d the burly diver said as he geared up for his first plunge of the day. \u201cThe smell is unpleasant, but it\u2019s like everything, you get used to it.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a job that man can do better and faster than a machine, which would take 15 days to unclog drains.<\/p>\n
Cu wears a yellow diving helmet and a red dry suit to protect him from slimy water. Because an oxygen tank would be too heavy, he breathes through a tube connected to the surface.<\/p>\n
He swims under the surface or drags himself over waste, looking for any garbage that might stop the flow of wastewater and cause trouble in bathrooms above-ground.<\/p>\n
Cu often swims blind since things can get pitch black just 10 cm under the surface.<\/p>\n
Outside, three colleagues, including his two trainees, communicate with him via radio to make sure he is OK.<\/p>\n
\u201cA drop of water on the skin is a surefire infection for us,\u201d Cu said. The water carries other risks, including nails, broken glass and syringes.<\/p>\n
Cu has never suffered an accident, but he is haunted by the memory of a colleague who died after being swept away by the water of a reservoir 15 years ago.<\/p>\n
So why would a man swim among other people\u2019s waste day after day, risking his well-being for a modest pay?<\/p>\n
\u201cMy wife says that I work for the love of the art, but I really like my job,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s my passion,\u201d he added. \u201cI\u2019m motivated by the excitement because I never know what I\u2019ll find down below.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sergio Palacios Mayorga, a geology researcher at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, said that the sewer diver became necessary because of a giant population that still has to learn to recycle and stop throwing trash on the street and in rivers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe diver job will still have to exist for a while longer. The need will lessen as the population learns to put trash in bins and not on the street, which fills up drains,\u201d Mayorga said.<\/p>\n
For the past 18 months, Agustin Isaias, a 32-year-old computer specialist, and Luis Angel, 23, have been preparing to become sewer divers.<\/p>\n
Isaias said that the city government should put more resources into the job in order to attract more divers.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would be nice not to lose this,\u201d he said, adding that he still needs a couple of years to begin diving without Cu\u2019s supervision.<\/p>\n
Until then, Cu will take care of the trash \u201cas long as my body can tolerate it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want this diver job to disappear,\u201d he said, \u201cbecause it\u2019s important.\u201d<\/p>\n
Photo: AFP-JIJI<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Deep below the streets of Mexico City, Julio Cesar Cu is hard at work swimming in dark sewer waters in a diving helmet and dry suit, surrounded by rats, feces and condoms. It\u2019s a dirty job, but someone\u2019s got to do it. For the past 30 years, the 53-year-old has plunged below the grimy surface […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/ubune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1139"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/ubune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/ubune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ubune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ubune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1139"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/ubune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1139\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1293,"href":"http:\/\/ubune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1139\/revisions\/1293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/ubune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ubune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ubune.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}