In the heart of Cancun, Quintana Roo, bordering the most exclusive and visited hotel zone in this tropical paradise, is the Nichupté Lagoon. Currently, constant hotel development and infrastructure construction have seriously impacted its increasingly polluted waters.
In an exclusive interview with Causa Natura Media, biologist Eduardo Cejudo Espinosa, an expert in wetlands, lakes and coastal lagoons, with more than seven years dedicated to the study of the Nichupté Lagoon and a researcher attached to the Yucatan Scientific Research Center, shares his perspective on the environmental problems faced by this ecosystem.
Cejudo Espinosa highlights two problems in the Nichupté lagoon: heavy boat traffic, which generates pollution due to fuel leaks and engine wear, and abandoned or sunken boats, which affect the ecosystem with polluting materials. Although regulations exist, there are no effective mechanisms for removing damaged vessels.
The interview with Eduardo Cejudo Espinosa has been edited for clarity.
— When does the pollution start in the Nichupté Lagoon?
Since Cancun was founded, the impact on the lagoon has been clear. What we now know as the hotel zone was a barrier island, originally there was nothing there. As soon as there began to be construction on this barrier island and around the lagoon, the impacts began.
— How does pollution from direct wastewater discharges occur in the Nichupté Lagoon?
When it began to be paved and areas of rapid communication roads began to be built, rainwater drained everything that was on the roads, from dust, garbage, urban solid waste, to everything that is dissolved in water. Then, one of the first impacts was undoubtedly the water that flowed from around the city.
Recently, a study funded by the municipal government (“Study of Water Quality in the Cancun Tourism Corridor”, in April 2021, carried out by the company AyMa Engineering and Consulting commissioned by the Municipality of Benito Juárez and Tourism Companies of Cancun, under contract No. MBJ-OFM-DRM-143-2020) found that there are still unregulated downloads from some established businesses in the hotel zone.
— How do excess boats pollute the Nichupté Lagoon?
There are two issues that are very obvious and that we might think are contributing to negative conditions in the lagoon. The first of these is the high intensity of boat traffic.
This impact we might think is not that big, but associated with the movement of boats, there is fuel and there can be potential lubricant leaks. and even the bearing parts, the engine itself of a boat can wear out, and small particles like dust can fall into the water. A good part of the people who are studying the area think that there is an impact, but we don't have it quantified.
And the second is the large number of boats abandoned or already practically submerged by shipwreck and that have not been removed from the lagoon.
Sometimes boat owners try to recover as much as possible, but the mere fact of having the metal structure with some parts probably no longer rescued, is potentially a source of substances that should not naturally be in the lagoon.
— In other words, there is no regulation of who can or cannot use their boat inside the Nichupté lagoon?
The regulation on the existence of boats exists, all of them must be registered with the Port Authority and must have a license plate, although this is regulated.
What is not regulated or well managed for different reasons and by correspondence to different administrative entities of different levels of government, is that when a vessel suffers damage to the lagoon, there is an obligation on the part of the person who owns or is responsible for the boat to remove it, but there is currently no mechanism that forces them to do so.
—There is a very obvious phenomenon, it's hotel and infrastructure developments in general, have you seen that these influence the lagoon?
I couldn't tell you with certainty that there is a direct influence. One of the indirect influences that has been noticed, and probably not directly to the body of water, is that the buildings in this sandy area damage other structures, for example the pounding of the foundation, the carrying of material, the circulation of cargo vehicles can affect other constructions and this could possibly cause a pipe to break, some material to come off, but there would be no evidence to tell them if they are clearly having an impact.
—The construction of the Nichupté Vehicle Bridge, which is currently 68% complete and is designed to cross over the Nichupté Lagoon in Cancún, has raised concerns about its potential environmental impacts, particularly in relation to pollution and risks to the lagoon's ecosystem. What do you think of this?
The bridge will have an extension of approximately 8 km over the water, and well, for me in particular and for many organizations, organized society, since we do not know the magnitude of the impact, we do not know what could happen. And for some time, the construction of the bridge was avoided under the principle of prevention, but now that it is a fact and that it is being concluded, there are situations for and against.
The favorable situations are mobility and civil protection, and there are people who are quite satisfied with construction.
The contrary opinions are basically the potential effects on construction and post-construction with traffic on the surface of the lagoon, and that potentially all these runoffs, as a result of vehicle traffic, can have a medium or long-term impact on the lagoon, on water and on organisms.
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