Mexico | Natural wells threatened by a tourist project, a “nightmare” for environmentalists

(Solidaridad) It is the “nightmare” of environmentalists in Mexico: the construction of the Maya train, a tourist megaproject of outgoing president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, threatens the cenotes, these pre-Hispanic underground wells which abound in the Yucatan peninsula.

In a cave in the Riviera Maya, enormous steel columns destroy the delicate ecosystem of one of these 2,400 chasms filled with crystal clear fresh water, a gateway to the “underworlds” of death and disease in the Mayan worldview.

The pillars were installed by construction teams for the Maya Train which is to travel 1,500 kilometers around the Yucatan Peninsula in southeastern Mexico, a megaproject of outgoing left-wing President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

The idea is to extend the benefits of tourism beyond Cancun, into the hinterland which remains one of the poorest areas of Mexico, despite its proximity to the pearl of the Caribbean.

“We have lived our worst nightmare here,” sighs, dejected, Roberto Rojo, biologist and speleologist, according to whom the machines equipped with a giant tendril have broken “the ceiling of the cavern” and “the thousand-year-old stalactites”.

Roberto Rojo belongs to the “Save me from the train” collective, which released a video in March documenting the damage caused by the installation of support pillars in the middle of the forest.

“Ecocide”

Environmental defenders denounce the absence of an impact study, and in general, the uprooting of 8.7 million trees to make way for the train.

“An ecocide”, they assure, also mentioning the irreversible damage inflicted on the underground ecosystem.

President Lopez Obrador describes the members of the collective as “pseudo-defenders of the environment” and accuses them of making money with their “so-called defense of nature”.

Getting to the cenote is not easy. The work, declared a “national security” issue, is placed under the surveillance of the National Guard.

To get closer, you have to go up a forest road starting from Playa del Carmen, a tourist hotspot on the coast. And then finish on foot, with a guide, machete in hand.

In the cave, you must equip yourself with a helmet and a lamp, without being afraid of getting wet.

The path, steep and slippery, is decorated with a wonderland of hundreds of stalactites and stalagmites, the oldest of which measure several meters.

In this supernatural landscape of beauty, an image suddenly jumps out at you: the first supporting pillars of the train.

Incalculable damage

The cement leaked into the usually crystal clear waters, which resemble a murky broth.

Even more serious, according to environmental defender Roberto Rojo: the well serves as a drinking water supply for the inhabitants of the area and reaches the Mesoamerican barrier reef in the Caribbean Sea, the second most important in the world.

“Plants, animals and the rest of us depend on what is one of the last potable aquifers we have in Mexico,” he says.

President Lopez Obrador maintains that the tubes are protected to avoid cement filtration.

In response to the video, the president said a few weeks ago that there was only one cement spill, and that repairs are underway.

But other support pillars show filtration, and the machines continue to dig holes in the fragile karst soil.

A report from an official environmental defense body (Profepa), released Friday by the newspaper El Universal, documented five spills.

The government defends itself by asserting that nine protected natural areas – 1.34 million hectares in total – have been created along the five sections of the train.

The government also boasts of having created the Gran Calakmul region (in Campeche, one of the stages of the train), which it compares to the second tropical forest reserve in the world “after the Amazon in Brazil” with 1, 5 million hectares.

Far from the exchange of arguments between environmental defenders and the government, tourists and locals board the train at the Playa del Carmen station, inaugurated two months ago.

For Jaime Vazquez, a 40-year-old tourism promoter, environmental degradation is inherent to development. “It’s ying and yang” with “parts affected” but others representing “benefits for humans, so there’s a balance,” he says.