The fresh water supply of the subway rivers of the Yucatan Peninsula is at risk of suffering salinization due to the construction of the Tren Maya, which will cause the ecosystem to be unable to survive.
In a press conference, environmentalists from the Selvame del Tren movement emphasized that the contamination of the state’s water has occurred over the course of a year due to the piles with which the soil has been drilled and which reach the subway rivers, which will affect the native communities, urban and tourist centers of the region.
“Currently the wells are already beginning to become salty, because we are extracting more water than the aquifer has the capacity to discharge, which means that seawater is penetrating where there used to be fresh water, drinking water,” said diver José Urbina Bravo.
Also, among the environmental specialists’ statements, biologist Roberto Rojo García added that as the water in the peninsula’s aquifer becomes saltier, the water absorbed by the jungle trees is less and less able to nourish them, which in the long run will generate a great deal of deforestation.
Urbina Bravo lamented that from the beginning of the railroad tracks to the arrival of the ballast in Puerto Morelos, more than nine million trees have already been cut down; and an uncountable number of cenotes have been covered with rocks or contamination.
Communities denounce violation of their human rights
On the other hand, representatives of indigenous communities from Quintana Roo and Campeche also spoke at the conference, where they denounced a violation of their human rights.
Nicolás Moreno, member of the indigenous community of Calakmul, complained that the authorities guarding the train works are only present to defend the work, but not the communities living near the route through which the railroad is intended to pass.
Likewise, there was no consultation in the native languages of the indigenous communities of the states, so that they were not properly consulted on the approval of the federal project, and the indigenous people are even treated as invaders in the area, opponents of the project, and even with this, they are demanded to support the advance of the macro project.
Finally, the environmentalists recalled that this Saturday, March 25, there will be a demonstration in the municipality of Puerto Morelos, where a human chain will be formed as a way of protesting the ecological damage to the jungle, subway rivers, mangroves, and reefs of the state.
TYT Newsroom
