“Crystal Clear Victory: Dive into Yucatán’s Cenote Cleanup!”

A diver was recently seen collecting bags of trash from the depths of a cenote on June 11, 2021.

The ongoing cenote sanitation program in the state of Yucatán is making progress. This year, 20 cenotes have been cleaned, but there remains a risk that they may be used as trash dumps again. The Xpakay cenote, located in the municipality of Tekit in the south of the state, is one of the cenotes that divers, ecologists, and researchers have cleaned this year. Six months ago, several kilograms of trash and pollutants were removed from its 40-meter depths. Now, it appears clean and has regained its crystal clear waters.

The items found in the waters included aerosols, batteries, drones, cameras, mobile phones, watches, and plastics. Alberto Swaine, a professional diver, confirmed that they have removed bags of garbage on multiple occasions, even recovering a washing machine from the bottom of the cenote. Toshio Yokoyama, the director of Management and Conservation of Natural Resources of the Secretariat of Sustainable Development of Yucatán, reported that to date, a total of 25,405 kilograms of waste have been collected.

There are an estimated 3,000 cenotes in Yucatán. Over the past five years, 134 of these have been cleaned. However, it has been recently discovered that 15 of them have been re-polluted with trash. Luis Felaco, a researcher at the Center for Investigation and Advanced Studies of the National Polytechnic Institute (Cinvestav), explained the ecological risk of pollution in these ecosystems. The pollution accumulates in the food chain, potentially harming animals and humans who swim in these waters.