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In depth

REPSA and the La Pasión river: the ecocide and its consequences

Dossier
Water for industry14-agua-industrial.md
Domain
Industrial water, wells and dischargesagua
Room
Energy/energia
Audited
Audited

In 2015 the overflow of REPSA's oxidation ponds (Grupo HAME, oil palm) contaminated 150 km of the La Pasión river in Sayaxché, Petén, with 'tonnes of dead fish'; the event was called an 'ecocide'. The figure of '>50 t' could not be verified (CONNECTAS was inaccessible during the audit; the press cites up to 70 t) and dossier 23 records about 160 km via Mongabay-EN 2015, still to be reconciled. Commercial consequence: Nestlé suspended purchases from REPSA in 2018 and lifted the suspension in October 2020. It is the harshest precedent of a water-industry conflict over surface-water contamination.

The research is written in English; quoted figures, source names and the titles of legal instruments stay in the language their source published them in.

Figures

Stretch of the La Pasión river contaminatedMongabay 2021
150 km (dossier 23: ~160 km)2015
Nestlé's suspension of purchases from REPSAMongabay 2021
2018; lifted Oct 20202018-2020

Caveat

fish tonnage unverified; kilometers still to be reconciled (150 vs about 160)

Sources

Organizations named in the answer

  • Grupo HAMEWater-versus-agribusiness conflict precedent: parent company of REPSA; accused by the Human Rights Ombudsman (PDH) in 2018 of diverting the Madre Vieja river towards palm plantations and in 2019 of the same on the Suchiate riverCompany case
  • MongabayNews outlet; coverage of the REPSA / La Pasión river case and of the murder of Rigoberto Lima Choc (September 2015).Other
  • NestléSupply-chain risk precedent: suspended purchases from REPSA in 2018 over the La Pasión river caseCompany case

Directory of organizations

Related records

This layer is research: read from public sources by the archive's own team, every claim cited with the date it was consulted, and audited where it is marked so. It has not entered the verified store — no figure here was fetched back from its source or stamped with a retrieval time — so it wears no red provenance numeral and never mixes with the verified figures.