VOA · Arts & Culture
Intermediate · B1–B2learner speed5:552024-12-12public domain
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01In the Mexican state of Yucatan, hundreds of underground lakes form a semicircular shape in the northwestern part of Yucatan State.
02They are called the Ring of Cenotes.
03The lakes provide water for the area, but they are also part of a dispute between local people and pig farmers.
04The cenotes are also important to local people who earn a living by leading foreign visitors into the caverns to swim and explore.
05Maribel Eke lives in the community of Pomon, near the cenote known as Santa Maria.
06To native Mayans like Eke, cenotes are holy.
07She calls the Santa Maria cenote her neighbor.
08That belief is behind a legal action or lawsuit that aims to have the Ring of Cenotes legally recognized as a person.
09Personhood would give the lakes the same rights and protections of law that human citizens have.
10A Mayan organization called Guardians of the Cenotes has brought the lawsuit.
11It aims to keep large pig farms out of the area because they are affecting the water quality of the underground lakes.
12If the group wins, the lakes will become the first ecosystem in Mexico to be considered a person.
13There have been other such cases worldwide, such as the Whanganui River in New Zealand or the Comimenem River in the Brazilian Amazon.
14Eke is a member of the Guardians group.
15The threats to cenotes have been growing.
16Cities in Yucatan are growing, and there are new breweries and soybean fields in the area.
17But what most worries the guardians of the cenotes are the pig farms.
18Mexico's Ministry of the Environment reports that 507 pig farms are operating near the Ring of Cenotes.
19There is little to no control over what happens to the thousands of liters of water containing pig waste from the farms.
20Yameli Aguilar is a biologist from the Autonomous University of Yucatan.
21He said the polluted water goes into the aquifer.
22A study carried out last year by the Ministry of the Environment found E.
23coli bacteria, in 20 cenotes near pig farms.
24The state has named the land a natural protected area, and it is an important wetland.
25Lourdes Medina is a lawyer who represents the Guardians in the legal case.
26She said the government still has failed to prevent serious contamination from taking place.
27Eke and others created the Guardians of the Cenotes group to lead the fight against one pig farm built near Homun in 2017.
28They organized protests and legal actions without any effect.
29A year later, six children from Homun brought a case demanding their right to water and a healthy environment.
30A judge ordered the farm closed.
31In 2022, the group began its personhood legal action.
32If successful, it would affect 52 communities within the ring of Cenotes.
33A Yucatan state judge has ordered officials not to give permission to any project that could affect the area until the lawsuit is settled.
34That could happen at the beginning of next year.
35Pig farms and other large industries come to the area because of the availability of water.
36The farms use a lot of water to cool the animals and clean their waste.
37The industry says it is not causing the contamination.
38Carlos Ramaylo Navarrete is director of the Pig Farmers Association in Merida.
39It represents the largest pig farms in Yucatan.
40He said the problem comes from a lack of drainage systems in cities and small pig farmers.
41Navarrete said small pig farms are not as officially regulated as the big farms he represents.
42He said around half the water the farms use is reused.
43In addition, he said all of the farms have treatment systems to reduce pollution in their waste water.
44The remaining water is then used as fertilizer.
45However, both the Ministry of the Environment and Aguilar, the biologist, have said that the measures taken by the industry are still not enough.
46Back in Homun, Maribel Ek enjoys swimming in the waters of the cenote.
47She said that she has learned the cenote is a blessing, a dark hole that becomes a friend.
48And, she added, that's why we demand rights for our cenotes.
49I'm Jill Robbins.
50I'm Jill Robbins.
51I'm Jill Robbins.
52I'm Jill Robbins.
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