Indigenous Maya groups in Mexico's Yucatán state are protesting against a planned Heineken brewery, arguing it threatens their water supplies and way of life. The brewery, announced in June near Mérida, is part of a $2.75bn investment expected to create 2,500 jobs, but activists say it will exacerbate water scarcity in a region where access to drinking water has declined by over 50% since 2003.
The plant is to be built in Kanasín, within the Cenote Ring, a network of underground aquifers vital to Maya communities for spiritual and practical reasons. Heineken plans to produce 400m litres of beer annually, aiming to use two litres of water per litre of beer. However, activists estimate this could still consume 1bn litres of water annually, enough to support 28,000 families in an area where 121,000 people lacked drinking water in 2020.
Pedro Uc Be, an activist with Maya land rights group Múuch’ Xíinbal, said: 'It not only threatens our water through contamination, but could make it harder for people in poverty to access it.' The group accuses the government of prioritising profit over water, health, and land, and denounces a lack of community consent, disputing Heineken's claim that consultations took place in December.
Heineken says it will use circular economy practices and cutting-edge treatment systems to minimise water use and waste, and operate on renewable energy. But Adrian Forrester, founder of Mexican craft brewery Cerveceria Bóruma, argues that the sheer scale of production 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.'
Communities also fear pollution from wastewater, which contains chemicals and organic compounds that can contaminate groundwater. Uc Be noted a history of non-compliance, citing pig farms accused of polluting the Cenote Ring and a 2018 case against the Modelo brewery in Hunucmá after carcinogenic agrochemicals were found in drinking water. State records from July show only 3% of Yucatán's wastewater is treated, due to a lack of operational plants.
