About 80 UCSD students will join residents of an impoverished Tijuana neighborhood on Saturday to build environmentally-sound paving tiles. The tile will help soak up and filter water to stem the flow of polluted runoff to San Diego and serve as a model for both sides of the border. KPBS reporter Amy Isackson has the story.
The goal is to make 70,000 tiles to pave a half mile stretch of road in the San Bernardo neighborhood.
20 years ago, the area was ranchland. Now more than 80,000 people live there and in and the surrounding canyon.
Most of the houses lack plumbing.
The waste flows downhill into an internationally-protected wetland in San Diego.
UCSD professor and environmentalist Oscar Romo is directing the paving project.
Romo : It’s a very easy solution to solve a number of problems.
Romo says the pavers will make the street in San Bernardo passable when it rains. They'll help collect water to feed native plants and eat up contamination.
And Romo says on the U.S. side:
Romo : That would help us to maintain water quality in the ocean and river. That eventually would help maintaining the species on the U.S. side of the border.
Romo is working with city council members on both sides of the border to expand the project.
Amy Isackson, KPBS News.
