Julio Cu Camara’s day job is dirty work. The 52-year-old spends his working days submerged in the murky liquid of Mexico City’s sewers, clearing blockages and carrying out repairs by hand.
For 30 years, Cu Camara has made an average of four dives a month, staying below the surface for about 30 minutes to six hours at a time.
He wears an airtight suit and helmet that weigh about 90lb in total to protect him from the human, chemical and animal waste and its overpowering stench.
Cu Camara, 52, is the only original member of the city’s sewer diving team left and is training up two young replacements
Cu Camara has encountered dead human bodies, horses and pigs as well as weapons and car parts while exploring a drainage system measuring about 7,456 miles long.
‘I think the worst thing to find is a human being, because we’ve found bodies of people and we don’t know who they are,’ he told Radio Netherlands in 2010.
he makes four dives on average and can be submerged for about 30 minutes to six hours depending on the work needed
‘I’ve found everything from cigarette butts to bits of cars and trucks, big tyres, furniture, fridges, microwaves.
‘We find all of it in the sewers. You’ve got to ask yourself how it got there? But there it is – it’s crazy.’
‘The most common problem is garbage. All of the city’s litter ends up here, in the drainage system and it obstructs the pumps, the metal grates, the hatches.’
Cu Camara wears an airtight suit when he dives to spare him the stench of the sewage
The pipes and pumps that process waste water are repaired and unblocked by hand to save time but must be carried out in the dark because no light is strong enough to illuminate the pitch black sewage.
Cu Camara has made more than 1,400 trips below the surface but thankfully he gets a thorough hosing down when he surfaces from below.
While submerged, he talks to his support team through a helmet microphone.
He is the chief diver for the Federal District’s sewerage system and the only remaining member of the original team.
Now, the married father-of-two is training up two young divers to follow in his wake.
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