Mexico rejects 12 billion peso water deal in Cancún

Mexico City – The Federal Government has closed the door on Aguakán. The company that controls drinking water in Cancún and the Riviera Maya—the country’s largest tourist corridor—proposed 12 billion pesos to release the concession, but President Claudia Sheinbaum called the figure exorbitant.

“The company has been approached, but the prices are very, very high. They even proposed around 12 billion, but it would be absurd to pay that,” Sheinbaum said this Thursday during her morning conference in Puebla.

The president made it clear that they are analyzing the return of the drinking water concession, but through other means.

They Have Already Recovered Their Investment

Sheinbaum explained that the government is examining two fronts: the process by which the concession extension was granted to Aguakán and the possibility of purchasing it, considering that the company has already recovered its investment.

“The issue is also who would operate this concession, which is also being worked on with the governor (Mara Lezama) of Quintana Roo and the municipality of Cancún,” she added.

Aguakán maintains the supply of drinking water and sewage in the municipalities where Cancún, Playa del Carmen, Puerto Morelos, and Isla Mujeres are located, the country’s largest tourist area with around 120,000 hotel rooms, some of them super-luxury.

A Concession Born in PRI Governments

Aguakán obtained the drinking water supply concession in 1993 for Cancún, Isla Mujeres, and Puerto Morelos.

In December 2014, the contract was ratified and extended until 2053, including Playa del Carmen, the heart of the Riviera Maya.

The approval of these new agreements occurred with the endorsement of the former PRI governor, now imprisoned, Roberto Borge Angulo, and figures such as Mauricio Góngora Escalante, former PRI candidate for governor, who—as municipal president of Playa del Carmen—called a secret council session to hand over control of the water to this company.

The Legal Battle Is Stalled

In 2023, the Quintana Roo Congress, controlled by Morena, approved the withdrawal of the concession. The company requested an injunction, which was denied in April 2025.

Aguakán has challenged these judicial determinations to paralyze the withdrawal of the service provision.

In October 2025, Hugo Aguilar Ortiz, presiding minister of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation, opened the possibility of taking up the case, but the matter was later removed from the list of the highest judicial body.

For this reason, in the judicial sphere, the legal process is currently paralyzed.