As Chiapas Struggles with a Drought, Coca-Cola Profits

The state of Chiapas in the south of Mexico is home to the country’s largest water reserves. Several factors, from geographic favorability, rainfall, and climactic conditions specific to the area, give the state semi-warm, tropical, temperate, and cold climates throughout the year. This ensures it receives the most water per capita in the region, providing about 30 percent of Mexico’s water supply. But over the last few years, environmentalists and citizens alike say that it is because of corporate greed that the state is running into an serious drought. In the city of San Cristóbal de las Casas, sitting in the highlands of Chiapas, citizens have more access to Coca-Cola than drinking water. The area is home to a FEMSA bottling plant, which makes Coca-Cola and other food products and soft drinks. Its prime location next to the Huitepec volcano basin, a readily available water source in Chiapas, gives it an advantage over the citizens of the region, as they have permits to extract over 300,000 gallons of water daily from the basin to make sodas.

Currently, the plant distributes most of Latin America’s Coca-Cola. With only about one in three of Chiapas’ citizens having access to water in their homes, communities are rallying for visibility as they fight Coca-Cola in their pursuit for improved conditions.

A state that consumes more Coca-Cola than water

While communities in Chiapas lobby against Coca-Cola and other multinationals taking over the state’s water supply, the relationship between the region and this corporation runs deep. From religious ceremonies performed with the drink to the staggering consumption of Coca-Cola in the region, the drink has embedded itself into Mexican culture. In 2024, a report backed by El Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología de Mexico (Conacyt) showed citizens in Chiapas consume approximately 821.25 liters of Coca-Cola per year which amount to about 2.2 liters of coke per day.

This number not only surpasses five times the national figures, but makes Chiapas the largest consumer of Coca-Cola on the planet. The study raised alarming questions regarding the region’s dietary habits, as the drink has become almost fundamental in everyday life for Chiapans.

A 2019 publication by the National Autonomous University of Mexico claims a high percentage of citizens have substituted water for highly caloric drinks like Coke, triggering an epidemic of diabetes in the region. In fact, diabetes is the second leading cause of death in Chiapas after heart disease. According to the New York Times, the mortality rate from diabetes in the region went up 30 percent between 2013 to 2016.

Most of the citizens facing these issues are Mayans living in the highland regions of Chiapas, particularly those with reduced access to drinking water. “To understand the role of Coca Cola in Chiapas it is necessary to examine how the company operates and how this has affected the Highland Mayans,” the report states. “Research conducted by Blanding found that based on total population in most countries, average yearly Coca Cola consumption was 100 cups (.25 liters); in the United States average yearly consumption was 100 liters, while in Mexico it was 150 liters.”

“As a consequence this dark drink added some 788 to 985 kcal to the ‘normal’ Mexican diet. This amount of sugar reduces caloric needs while also reducing the quantity of nutrients available. For the population as a whole this means a daily increase of 5113.7 kcal. This one statistic is enough to explain the high prevalence of diabetes mellitus in the highlands, where it has become the principal cause of death in the last 10 years,” they added.

Another factor considered in the study is that drinking coke is synonymous with “having status” at a social level. Another study by the Universidad Intercultural de Chiapas, claims the drink is considered “posh” among some in the region also supported this. The study states this “status” comes from the introduction of Coca-Cola to the region decades ago, where people with more money had more access to the drink. Still, with consumption figures such as these, the company is producing approximately 120, 000 liters of coke per day, further exacerbating water stress while profiting.

Draining Chiapas water supply while profiting

Amid the alarming consumption of Coca-Cola in Chiapas lies a greater interest for the company: profits. Currently, Coca-Cola holds permits to extract over 300,000 gallons of water (approximately 1.14) million litres from the Huitepec volcano basin daily.

An official 2010 report from Coca-Cola and the Nature Conservancy states the company requires 9.2 gallons of water to produce a half-liter of Coke, 7 gallons to raise sugar beets as sweetener, two gallons to manufacture plastic bottles, and 0.1 gallons for the basis of the product.

The extractions have caused even those living in the most central areas of San Cristóbal de las Casas to face water disruptions that can last weeks, Al Jazeera reports. Even worse, water pollution from fecal contamination has made tap water undrinkable, leaving citizens with limited resources, some even traveling for hours to find bottled sources.

“It’s sad, we can’t bathe, we can’t drink, we can’t clean water,” Silvia Perez Mendez told CBS This Morning. She is a local resident of San Cristobal who uses rainwater to supplement the lack of access in her town. Despite all this, the company continues profiting, as it has historically. According to the 2024 Coca-Cola FEMSA third quarter report, company revenue increased by 10.7 percent at 69,601 million Mexican Pesos or approximately 3.4 million dollars. Coca-Cola also owns 70 percent market share and sales of Mexican sodas.

Since the company’s establishment, it has barely paid the state or San Cristobal for its water consumption, which some account to its relation with three Mexican presidents: Ernesto Zedillo, Vicente Fox and Felipe Calderón. Fox was the president of the company in Mexico before his presidential election in 2000. Also, Jaime Jaquez, Coca-Cola Mexico’s former general director was National Commissioner for Water during the Fox presidency, giving FEMSA-Coke a 20 year concession to extract water for free. Furthermore, during the presidency of Zedillo and Calderón their State Secretaries were FEMSA-Coke employees.

The company also holds another advantage over citizens. With FEMSA leading over 20,000 convenience stories across Mexico, they provide small prizes for support. They also supply over 1,500 jobs in the area and claim they are working on restoring the resources they use.

In a sustainability report, the Coca-Cola company claimed that since 2015 they have returned over 100 percent of the water used in their finished products globally. Adding they “seek to return 100 percent of the total water used in each of our more than 200 high-risk locations across the Coca-Cola system by 2035.”

Still, while the company promises to replenish the water it takes, citizens continue suffering and wondering if true change is coming. Since its installment in 1994, FEMSA has faced no resistance from Mexico’s National Water Comission, which continues granting water permits to the factory as Chiapas faces the harsh realities of climate change.

An uncertain future while facing climate change

Mexico has been facing water shortages since 2011, when approximately 23 percent of the country faced exceptional conditions such as limited rainfall and intense droughts. Last year, they faced the second most concerning drought in its history with nearly 76 percent of the country facing water shortages, including central and southern Mexico.

Projections predict that by 2025 severe drought will extend water shortages to 20 of its 32 states. Thankfully, not all is lost. Activists and non-profit organizations continue rallying for safe water access across Chiapas, infrastructure improvements, and the awareness of the effects of climate change.

Groups like the We are Water foundation, Agua y Vida, and Cántaro Azul are lobbying not only against the abuse from multinationals draining Mexico, but pushing for the development of water systems that can reach even the most remote areas of the country.

In 2016, Cántaro Azul started collaborating with the Parque Natural Encuentro, a conservation area in western San Cristóbal de Las Casas in Chiapas to build “La Casa del Agua.” This initiative, documented in the video below, is a space that inspires conscious community treatment of water, the environment in the area, and practical learning about the cycles of water and how to filter, disinfect, and drink it.

Organizations like Agua y Vida have also lobbied against Coca-Cola in the area, focusing on the imperative role of women in society and how they are heavily affected by both the consumption of Coca-Cola and lack of water access.

“From Agua y Vida: Mujeres, Derechos y Ambiente, we’ve seen that due to sexual and gender divides from work, women are the main caretakers and administrators of water for domestic and personal use,” the organization wrote in a statement. “However, we are not recognized or valued as such. In rural and Indigenous contexts, this situation intensifies, seeing as water is almost nonexistent and women and girls must travel long distances, and travel hours in a day to find water for the entire family.”

According to Chiapas Paralelo, women in Chiapas walk approximately four to five kilometers (2.5 to 3.1 miles) per day to bring water to their homes from nearby rivers, towns, or wherever they can find bottled water in the region. In many instances, they don’t have means to carry the water back, so they have to repeat the trip two or three times a day.

While many of these women live in communities with water basins, droughts caused by watering plants like Coca-Cola’s, compiled with water treatment issues making water unusable continue being the greatest problem. Agua y Vida shared an infographic demanding the removal of Coca-Cola from Chiapas, as well as other bottling plants that sell bottled water.

“Privatization is one of the principal threats for water rights,” the infographic reads. “The water bottling companies extract huge quantities of water from rivers and underwater water tables that are later sold as sodas and bottled water.”

In light of this, the community is not staying silent. Cantaro Azul’s 2024 “Chiapas for el Agua” report, published in January 2025, details a strategy for returning water to Chiapas. The “Plan de Justicia Hídratica para Chiapas” brings together the community and government to defend water as a human right, while also recognizing the historical damages suffered by affected communities. The plan hopes to guarantee clean water for everyone, without exception, through a sustainable water system.

“To ensure water is valued as a benefit for the nation, we have to ensure this resource is used for the public good, preventing its hoarding and stewardship according to each territorial context,” the report states. “Water management should be public and communty-based.”