Tijuana’s municipal government hauled away more than 55 tons of heavy waste from three delegations as part of its ongoing “Tijuana: Ciudad Limpia” (Clean City) program. Crews targeted neighborhoods in the Otay Centenario, La Mesa, and Sánchez Taboada districts, areas in Tijuana’s central corridor where illegal dumping is a persistent problem.
The cleanup, reported on May 18, included trash removal near two elementary schools. City workers also installed 15 LED streetlights, repainted road markings, trimmed trees, and cleared drainage channels. Municipal officials said the combined work benefited an estimated 7,500 residents and students.
Part of a Broader Cleanup Push
The effort is the latest in a series of cleanup operations under Mayor Ismael Burgueño Ruiz’s Ciudad Limpia initiative. In February, the same program removed 40 tons of waste from the San Antonio de los Buenos, Playas de Tijuana, and Downtown delegations in a similar multi-neighborhood sweep. That earlier round also included LED lighting installation and tree pruning, benefiting more than 7,000 residents.
Illegal dumping remains one of Tijuana’s most visible infrastructure challenges. The city collects roughly 1,237 tons of solid waste daily across 730 neighborhoods, according to data from the North American Development Bank. Even with that daily collection, trash accumulates faster than crews can haul it away, particularly in hillside colonias with limited road access.
How Residents Can Report Problems
The city’s XXV Ayuntamiento urged residents to keep public spaces clean and report dumping, broken streetlights, or drainage issues by calling the 072 municipal hotline. The number works from any phone in Tijuana and connects callers to the city’s service request system.
For residents of La Mesa and Sánchez Taboada, two of the most populated mid-city delegations, the drainage clearing may prove especially valuable heading into the summer monsoon season. Blocked storm channels in these areas have contributed to localized flooding in past years.
Municipal authorities and staff from multiple city departments supervised the latest round of work alongside residents from the affected neighborhoods, according to reporting by Jornada BC.