A low-budget scheme has transformed a rubbish dump in an impoverished part of Mexico City into an urban garden, raising hopes for a new shade of green revolution.
Iztapalapa, a bustling borough of two million people within the greater sprawl of Mexico City’s 20 million people, is an unlikely place to find an agricultural revolution.
But on a patch of land once strewn with the detritus associated with one of the world’s largest cities, there now sits a 400 square metre (4,305 square feet) garden.
It is maintained by 40-year-old Irma Diaz as part of the district council’s “agricultural development” program.
“We started in 2007 with 20 projects, we now have 82,” said Edgar Duran, coordinator of the scheme, which has invested just 131,000 pesos, or around $10,000, and relies largely on volunteers to farm mini-plots where they are available.
