More than 10,000 residents of the Cuxtitali and Las Delicias neighborhoods, located in the northern and eastern areas of San Cristóbal de Las Casas, are facing the suspension of their water supply due to an agrarian and political conflict between the residents of Cuxtitali El Pinar and government authorities at all three levels. As a result, residents have been forced to purchase water using truck-drawn vehicles, which represents an additional expense that significantly impacts their economy. More than a year after this situation, residents are calling on authorities to intervene to solve the problem.
In an interview, Alejandro Ruíz Guzmán, a resident of the Cuxtitali neighborhood, explained that the water suspension began in 2024 due to this conflict between the residents of the Cuxtitali El Pinar ejido and the authorities. Ruíz Guzmán urged attention to this case, as thousands of users are being harmed, unrelated to the conflict in question.
“I’m Alejandro Ruiz Guzmán, a resident of Cuxtitali and a user of Chupactic water. I can tell you that we’re experiencing a very worrying and serious water crisis because, since last year, we’ve had virtually no water. This is happening because there’s a community conflict in the Cuxtitali El Pinar ejido, where the spring is located. We understand that some residents of that area are in jail, and one of the groups seized the Chupactic spring as a pressure measure to get some prisoners from the ejido released. But this measure is greatly affecting us, the users of the neighborhood; we have nothing to do with this conflict. It’s robbed us of the spring, the spring that our parents obtained more than 50 years ago. They excavated, laid the pipeline, and managed to obtain this water, because Sapam can’t supply us with water. After 50 years, we’re left without a drop of water. If they release their prisoners, then that’s fine too.” They’re going to release it. We’re buying water from a truck, and it costs us between 500 and 800 pesos, but it’s causing severe gastrointestinal illness. They’re spending a lot of money going to the doctor because the children are at risk, their lives, Ruiz Guzmán said.
Alejandro Ruiz called on the people who have taken the spring to reflect on the damage they are causing to the residents of the two affected neighborhoods. He also reminded them that they are depriving the community of a human right, access to water, as enshrined in Article 4 of the Political Constitution.
“Let them stop and think; they are committing a crime. They robbed us of our water; no one has the right to rob us of our water.” “We have nothing to do with the problem they have with the government,” declared Ruiz Guzmán.
“That’s why I’m calling on the residents of the Cuxtitali El Pinar ejido to reflect and return the spring to us for the benefit of the more than 10,000 residents of the Cuxtitali and Las Delicias neighborhoods. We’re taking advantage of the rain and collecting water with buckets, and that way we have a little bit of water in our homes. Every time it rains, there’s a fair in the Cuxtitali neighborhood, because everyone comes out with buckets, drums, or whatever containers they have to collect rainwater. This way, the situation in the neighborhood is being resolved somewhat,” concluded Alejandro Ruiz Guzmán.
Source: oem
