Underground lakes are extraordinary, but does that mean they should have the same rights as people? A Mayan woman named Maribel Ek thinks so.
Ek lives in Homun on the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. On her property, long roots from a huge poplar tree drink from a sinkhole lake or cenote (say-NO-tay). These lakes form when thin limestone collapses, often due to rainfall and rising currents of underground rivers. Cenotes are home to creatures like the guppy, catfish, and the Yucatan blind eel.
The fascinating formations provide water for the surrounding community. Additionally, native Mayans like Ek consider the lakes sacred. Ancient Mayans thought of cenotes as gateways to the afterlife. Some Mayans still bring offerings to the cenotes to thank them for healthy crops.
That’s why Ek joined a lawsuit that seeks personhood status for the hundreds of underground lakes around and on the Yucatan peninsula. The area is called the Ring of Cenotes.
A group called the Guardians of the Cenotes hopes to protect the water from contamination. The Guardians could represent the Ring of Cenotes in court. If they win the case, this would become the first ecosystem in Mexico to have its own rights. But other non-persons have won rights in other places of the world. Some include the Whanganui River in New Zealand and the Komi Memem River in the Brazilian Amazon.
The Guardians mostly want to protect cenotes from pig farms.
A little more than 500 pig farms operate near the Ring of Cenotes. Thousands of liters of dirty water flow out of these facilities. Some of that water soaks into the thin soil and pollutes the cenotes. Researchers found that water from several cenotes near pig farms contained a dangerous bacteria called E. coli bacteria.
But pig farmers claim they’re doing their best. Many of them reuse the dirty water for their crops.
Still, Ek and other cenote owners created the Guardians group to fight against a 49,000-pig farm in 2017.
In 2022, they filed the personhood lawsuit to protect Homun and 52 communities located within the Ring of Cenotes. That lawsuit could be resolved very soon.
Back at her home, Maribel Ek reaches the end of a cavern and dives into the turquoise waters of a cenote. As a child, she came here every day to collect water. The public supply didn’t reach her house.
She believes the cenote isn’t just “a dark hole with bats,” but “a blessing, a dark hole that becomes a friend,” she says. “That’s why we demand rights for our cenotes.”
She’s partly right: A cenote is a blessing. Still, it’s dangerous to start treating animals or natural resources with the same dignity as a person. Human beings are made in the image of God. (Genesis 1:27) It’s good to work to protect water resources and to strive to steward God’s creation carefully. But we do it because God gave us a dignity unique in all creation. Humans get to reflect God to one another and to the entire world. That’s a right and a responsibility of personhood.
Why? Only humans who are made in the image of the Creator God have the privilege (and responsibilities) of personhood.
