Human rights activists demand more safety measures at canal

Drowning deaths at border are cited

By Leslie Berestein, UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
Wednesday, December 2, 2009 at 10:28 p.m.

The long-anticipated task of lining 23 miles of the All-American Canal in Imperial Valley with concrete is nearly complete, but controversy over the fallout of the project continues to simmer.

Human rights organizations and activists gathered Wednesday in front of the San Diego County Water Authority office in Kearny Mesa to protest what they said was a lack of adequate safety measures in the lined portion of the canal, which is regularly crossed by people being smuggled illegally into the country.

Seventeen body bags were laid on the ground outside the building, one for each drowning death in the canal since early August 2008, they said.

“It has become a mass graveyard,â€