On a summer evening in southern Mexico, a percussion group using water bottles as instruments leads a procession through Mérida, capital of Yucatán state. Children walking alongside elderly people are guided by members of Múuch’ Xíinbal, a Maya land rights organisation. The placards they carry declare: “Water is not for sale.” A heavy chant accompanies the march: “It’s not a drought – it’s plunder!”
At a rallying point in the city, protesters read from a manifesto and accuse the government of prioritising profit over water, health and land. They denounce a wave of mega-projects imposed without their consent, from industrial-scale pig farms to the controversial Maya Train tourist expansion. But they reserve their greatest anger for the Heineken brewery in Kanasín, near Mérida, which was announced in June.
To many of Yucatán’s Maya people, the plans for the Heineken factory are seen not as a promising development, but as a continuation of a deeper problem: of government-backed industrial developments that threaten water supplies and human rights, leaving local communities caught in an uneven conflict to protect their cultural and environmental survival.
Heineken’s chief executive, Oriol Bonaclocha, announcing the brewery plans at the National Palace in June next to Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum. Photograph: Raquel Cunha/Reuters
As part of a $2.75bn (£2.05bn) investment plan, the Heineken brewery is expected to generate 2,500 jobs, directly and indirectly, including 300 permanent positions. Indigenous communities have criticised a lack of community consent – disputing the company’s claim that consultations took place last December – and raising concerns about its environmental impacts, particularly the effects of its water use on local communities.
Beer is primarily water. They are still taking a lot out to make the product … millions of litres a dayAdrian Forrester, brewer
“It not only threatens our water through contamination, but could make it harder for people in poverty to access it,” says Pedro Uc Be, an activist with Múuch’ Xíinbal.
Kanasín lies within the Yucatán’s Cenote Ring, a network of underground aquifers of spiritual and practical significance to the Maya and an important source of drinking water. Several studies have documented contamination from human activity within the cenote water supply.
The brewery in Meoqui, in Chihuahua state. Heineken says the Mérida brewery’s water usage will follow the principles of ‘reduce, re-use and replenish’. Photograph: José Luis González/Reuters
Heineken says it will produce 400m litres (100m US gallons) of beer a year, and plans to limit water use to two litres for every litre of beer. But one estimate suggests this could mean losing 1bn litres of water at the current rate of 2.6 litres for every litre of beer.
Activists say this is enough water to support 28,000 families in a region where about 121,000 people lacked access to drinking water in 2020, and water availability has fallen by more than 50% since 2003. The Dialogues on Alcohol Forum has also noted that in some rural areas of Mexico, alcohol is more readily available than drinking water.
The company also says its new brewery will reduce its water consumption with “circular economy practices that ensure water re-use through cutting-edge treatment systems” and aims to minimise waste and operate using renewable energy.
A cenote near large pig and poultry farms in Muna, Yucatán. Photograph: Héctor Vivas/Getty
But Adrian Forrester, founder of the Mexican craft brewery Cerveceria Bóruma, says this is not enough. Most of the water used to clean production tanks can be recycled, he says, but the enormous volume of Heineken’s production inevitably makes it water-intensive.
“Beer is primarily water; they are still taking a lot out to make the product. That’s millions of litres a day,” he says. The pressure on water supply, Forrester says, is “less about the water recycling, and more about the raw extraction of groundwater to produce at that scale”.
These companies have a history of claiming they will treat the wastewater using the latest technology to prevent contamination, but then they do notPedro Uc Be, activist
Communities are also concerned about pollution. Large-scale breweries are required by law to treat wastewater produced during beer manufacturing, as it contains high levels of chemicals and organic compounds that can harm soils and contaminate groundwater.
Uc Be worries about compliance. “Unfortunately, these companies have a history of claiming they will treat the wastewater using the latest technology to prevent contamination, but then they do not.”
He mentions the huge pig farms, which were accused of polluting the Cenote Ring with untreated wastewater. Allegations were made against the Modelo brewery in Hunucmá in 2018 after the discovery of carcinogenic agrochemicals in the drinking water of 40 Yucatán municipalities. An analysis of state records published in July found that only 3% of the state’s wastewater was being treated, which it attributes to a lack of operational plants.
Industrial pig farms in Opichen, Mexico. Some Indigenous communities have called for a moratorium on such megafarms. Photograph: Héctor Vivas/Getty Images
Heineken says it conducted a free, prior and informed consultation with assistance from the Kanasín state government, in which “communities approved the project and agreements for shared benefits were signed”.
The company also says it carried out a water-feasibility study before investing in the project, that its water usage follows the principles “reduce, re-use and replenish”, and that it aims for the new brewery to exceed the water consumption efficiency of its Meoqui plant in the state of Chihuahua – 1.7 litres of water for every litre of beer.
Indigenous groups say they are often excluded from decisions that affect their land and water. Mexico has signed an international treaty that requires “free and informed consent” from Indigenous peoples before activities that could affect them are undertaken, but the Maya feel that right is systematically ignored.
Maya groups and UN experts have criticised consultations around the vast Maya Train rail project as exclusionary and inadequate. A lack of consultation formed part of court proceedings brought against a pig farm by six children in Homún, and communities in Cuncunul and Valladolid successfully challenged a solar farm on the same grounds.
A Múuch’ Xíinbal workshop on leadership and land defence. Photograph: Haizel De la Cruz
For Indigenous communities, consultation matters. A global study by 18 researchers has found that large industrial projects often cause severe social and environmental impacts if they are not developed with the full support of local groups.
“The problem with such large-scale projects,” says the research lead, Arnim Scheidel, “is that they significantly change not only social relations, but also the local environment, which is often closely tied to cultural landscapes, sense of place and traditional ecological knowledge.”
Uc Be is concerned about cultural erasure caused by the surge of mega-projects across the region. “The Heineken project will bring gentrification and instability. The jobs it creates will be filled by outsiders who don’t understand our cultural situation.”
Alarmed by the experiences of counterparts along the Maya Train route, he also fears the influx of outsiders could increase his community’s vulnerability to opportunistic organised crime groups. Residents of various municipalities there have reported a rise in the drug trade, substance abuse, sexual harassment and violence.
Construction of the Maya Train cuts through the jungle in Yucatán. Maya groups and UN experts said there was too little consultation around the project. Photograph: Rodrigo Oropeza/AFP/Getty
With limited political inclusion, some Maya groups have turned to the courts for support. In June 2024, 21 communities demanded a moratorium on new industrialised pig megafarms; although the request failed, parallel legal actions resulted in the closure of one farm and fines for 26 others.
Last year, in a case that is still pending, the conservation group Guardians of the Cenotes filed a lawsuit against the state to secure legal personhood for the underground lakes.
Pedro Uc Be admits he does not know how to stop Heineken. Photograph: Haizel De la Cruz
But legal action is expensive and can take years to resolve. By the time courts upheld Indigenous requests to halt work on two sections of the Maya Train in January, the tracks had already been constructed.
Uc Be says he does not know what Múuch’ Xíinbal will do next. “We don’t have a way to stop the project right now. It’s a huge challenge,” he says.
However, they are not admitting defeat. While their resources are dwarfed by the scale of the brewery’s investment and its government backing, the Maya believe their strength depends on staying united.
“We act because we do not consent to our own murder. Only by recognising ourselves as one body, one life, can we continue as a Maya culture,” he says. “Just surviving is an act of resistance.”
