Supreme Court Rejects Aguakan Water Concession Case

QUINTANA ROO, Mexico — For the second time, the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) has declined to hear the case concerning Aguakan, the private company that holds the concession for potable water supply in Cancún and the Riviera Maya.

According to a judicial agreement consulted, the decision was made on the argument that the Consejería Jurídica (Legal Counsel) of the Government of Quintana Roo is not legally qualified to promote this type of action. This is the second request to be dismissed, following a previous denial in May of a review of the clause that allows the company to seek international arbitration in France, as was agreed during the administration of former governor Roberto Borge.

The portal for the magazine Proceso, in a report by journalist Octavio Martínez, indicated that a week before the previous Plenary of the Court concluded its functions, the then presiding minister Norma Lucía Piña Hernández dismissed the request for a writ of attraction promoted by the Consejería Jurídica. The petition sought to annul the definitive suspension obtained by Aguakan in January 2024, which was against the withdrawal of the concession approved by the state Congress.

In April 2025, Aguakan did not obtain an injunction (amparo) against the withdrawal of the concession; however, the service cannot be taken from them because a definitive suspension remains in effect within a writ of guarantees lawsuit. The case must now be resolved by the First Collegiate Circuit Court of Quintana Roo.

Aguakan has operated the concession since 2014 in four municipalities of the state. The business was endorsed at the time by former governor Roberto Borge, who is now imprisoned, and by former mayor Mauricio Góngora, who was a PRI candidate for the governorship and currently claims closeness to the Morena party.

The service benefits more than one and a half million inhabitants and a zone with more than 130,000 luxury hotel rooms in Cancún and the Riviera Maya.