Mangroves and the pre-Hispanic Xtampú salt mine, which still uses an ancestral artisanal process of salt extraction that dates back to the Mayans, are in danger in the municipality of Dzemul, warned farmers in the coastal region.
They said that the area would be harmed by the irregular placement of drinking water pipes that the mayor of the Citizen Movement party of Dzemul, José Wilberto Flota Aké, plans to install.
“The mayor of Dzemul, José Wilberto Flota Aké, began a 15-kilometer project to bring drinking water to Telchac Puerto, but it crosses natural areas that endanger the flora and fauna of the coastal area,” said Juventino Náhuat Pat, one of the 65 partners of the Xtampú salt mine who participated in a demonstration against the municipal plan.
Accompanied by José Armando Pat Canul and other partners who prevented municipal workers from placing PVC pipes flush with the mangroves and salt ponds, he said that they would not allow the destruction of the mangroves, “nor our livelihood, which are the salt ponds” located in the northeast of the Mexican state of Yucatán.
“We will not allow them to continue with this irregular work because it does not have the environmental impact permits,” he said.
Other protesters who declined to identify themselves for fear of reprisals are asking for support from the environmental authorities of Yucatan to stop the project that would cause an ecocide.
However, as of Sunday, March 9, the government of the state of Yucatan had not made any statement on the matter. Federica Janine Quijano Tapia, who has been on tour in the “90’s Pop Tour” as the singer of the group Kabah, appears as the Secretary of Sustainable Development and has not made any statement on the closures that Profepa recently carried out in Yucatan in Sisal and the Puuc Biocultural Reserve.
But what the Kabah group’s account did announce, with a photograph of the Yucatan government official headed by Joaquín Díaz Mena, is the upcoming presentation of their artistic tour in Querétaro, which will take place next Sunday, March 16.
Juventino Náhuat Pat, one of the partners of the Xtampú salt mine that uses the Mayan artisanal process, recalled that in 2023, environmental authorities closed for the first time the project to bring drinking water to Telchac Puerto due to the damage it would cause to the environment and “in May 2024, the same thing happened.”
This fact that he describes recalls the recent felling of mangroves on Sisal beach because although Profepa made previous closures, people ignored them and continued the devastation. “As the mayor was re-elected for a second term in 2025, he insists on bringing drinking water to Telchac Puerto, also causing problems for the town of Dzemul because two or three times a week we lack the vital liquid,” said Pat Canul.
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