I’ve been diving in this area since 2005.
What I’ve seen changing in the water
is the entire cave system changed their face.
It was a cave system that was brilliant white,
and a few years ago, everything turns black.
And the reason is related to the human activity.
It’s one of the world’s most Instagrammable destinations...
Good morning, guys. It is our first full day in Tulum.
frequented by glamorous fashionistas in search of a bohemian paradise.
But eco hippies descending on Tulum
for a dose of wellness and jungle raves
are poisoning the world’s largest underwater river system...
When you flush the toilet, it goes straight into the aquifer.
There are chemical and pharmaceutical compounds,
and there are some tracer concentrations of cocaine.
and attracting cartels from across the region.
There’s a lot of drug trafficking and disputes
between the gangs that want to gain control.
Now, as construction of a new airport is underway,
local scientists are working to expose the extent of the damage
triggered by Tulum’s rapid expansion
in a race to save this ecological haven.
We are relying on having healthy reefs
and clear water to keep surviving.
[Tulum’s Dirty Secret]
We are going to the cenote named Tres Cruces.
This was created by the rain.
Please don’t fall inside.
In the Tulum area, there are thousands and thousands of cenotes.
The water lands up on the jungle
and penetrates slowly in the porosity of this material
and then arrives into the aquifer,
the aquifer that you can see behind me.
It’s very fragile.
With fingers, we can work it,
and the water penetrates everywhere in the porosity.
If you put some pollutant in the water,
it will arrive down quite quick.
The importance of the aquifer is extreme.
This is one of the biggest drinkable deposits of water
in the entire planet.
If we lose the water,
all the humanity is affected.
This massive underwater reserve is now under threat.
Tulum, which just a decade ago was a small fishing village,
has transformed into a luxury destination for hipster vacationers.
Over the past decade, their population has almost doubled,
and the number of residential developments
catering for wealthy Western tourists has exploded.
However, the local infrastructure has not grown with it.
The hotel zone, there is no sewage system.
Hotels should have
their own treatment plants.
The biggest negative impact on development
is the pollution of the aquifer, the groundwater system,
by all this tourism flushing the toilets
without a septic system.
Currently, only ten to 15 percent of buildings
are connected to the sewage system,
which means the majority of wastewater
is seeping through porous rock
into the underwater rivers that connect to the Caribbean Sea.
Here in Tulum, we have the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System.
Many of our reefs are in a critical state.
A healthy coral, you will be able to see the skeleton, the colors,
it can be yellow, it can be orange, it can be purple.
What we are going to see is a carpet of microalgae on top of the coral.
For the last 12 years, we have seen the microalgae cover double.
If we don’t diminish this microalgae cover,
the corals eventually can die.
This algae growth has been exacerbated
by an influx of nutrients from the sewage
that has overwhelmed local reefs as well as the inland aquifer,
destabilizing the local ecosystems the water runs through.
We are going to see a cenote here.
And as you can see, it is surrounded by the mangroves.
This kind of mangroves are typical in the Mexican Caribbean.
And normally this kind of ecosystem helps us to treat the water
in a natural way,
and it’s connecting the forest, the mangroves,
the seagrass, and the coral reef.
I think the worst thing that we have found here in the Tulum area
and in the aquifer
comes from nutrients because the flush of the toilet,
there are a lot of heavy metals.
There are chemical and pharmaceutical compounds,
[such] as ibuprofen, naproxen,
and there are some tracer concentrations of drugs,
[such] as cocaine,
that all of these compounds that were not there four years ago.
Tourists jump into the cenote.
They can swim between all of these kind of pollutants.
If we have high concentrations of this bacteria
that comes from the flush of the toilet,
the people can get a stomach ache,
and they can have skin problems because of this kind of pollutants.
Tulum was a destination that was not described as a party scene.
We are a small destination,
and we can’t support that influx of people.
Parties are done wherever, in the jungle,
and of course, there’s a lack of sustainability, to say the least.
We are here in Tulum in the middle of the jungle,
and tonight we are having an epic party
under the moonlight.
Illegal jungle raves, advertised as rituals led by shamanistic DJs,
are attracting partygoers.
You can’t see my face
because police, narcos, and politicians
are after the event organizers.
Police can arrest the organizers,
and narcos can extort money.
Traces of the drugs being consumed in Tulum
end up in the natural water supply.
The party is next to the cenotes
and close to the caves that are 65 million years old.
The reason the party is in the jungle
is because we want a concept and a culture
of looking after the jungle
and understanding Mayan culture
as it is today from the native people in the jungle.
Tonight we are going to have rituals.
We’ll do ayahuasca, DMT.
Whenever you do a party,
there comes people that want to sell drugs in said party.
It affects us greatly on violence.
Drug-related crime
has risen by 783 percent over the past three years,
with several reports of violence between rival gangs.
We sell drugs
to all the tourists.
Anything you need.
Cocaine, weed, ecstasy, whatever you need.
Are you part of a cartel?
-Yes, sir.
Sinaloa.
However, none of that appears to have deterred tourists.
A new airport is set to open in 2023,
and numerous new properties, hotels, and resorts are being planned
in anticipation of the large future influx of holiday-goers.
Scientists and hoteliers
fear that these precious ecosystems will collapse
unless drastic sustainability practices are implemented urgently.
The GDP of Mexico,
more than 80 percent comes from these touristic activities.
So if you don’t see our reef that is healthy and colorful
and vibrant and full of fishes,
people will stop coming over here.
I think my greatest fear of the development in Tulum
is the lawlessness,
the not being able to hold somebody accountable.
And what that means is that it could be a Wild, Wild West situation
where if there is no consequence or you’re not held accountable,
you can do whatever you want.
And the first thing that's going to suffer is the environment,
without a doubt.
I think it is time to step back a bit,
see how we can offer adequate sustainability,
actually invest in putting something back to our environment
and not upsetting that balance,
not growing too fast.
As a tourist, you should be responsible
and asking whatever place you are staying at,
“Are you connected to the treatment plant?
Is the wastewater getting treated?
Because I don’t want to be part of the problem.”
Business owners should realize
that you’re not compromised as a successful business
by doing the right thing and being responsible
because we’re lucky Tulum is in incredibly high demand.
It’s thriving, so why not do things right?