Ten impoverished communities in western El Salvador is at risk of losing what they most treasure: the spring water that supplies more than 500 families surrounding La Labor Hacienda in the geothermic region of Chipilapa canton in Ahuachapán. The planned development of 1,764 houses has jeopardized the spring and its protected nature reserve that spans roughly 96 acres.
The communities, settled along the old outer ring of a coffee plantation, are facing legal challenges by Fénix Investments and Real Estate. Despite lacking the necessary permits, the company dug a well for the development, Eco-Terra Hacienda, jeopardizing the entire surrounding community’s access to the water, which provides income and food security through tilapia farming and supplies public washing places.
“It doesn’t matter if the water has parasites, if it has sulfur, if it is killing our elderly by kidney failure. It’s our water. We will not let them leave us without water,” says a resident of La Labor who participated in those protests and who withheld his name from publication amid the prosecution of his companions. By Feb. 6, 2022, when El Faro first published this story in Spanish, three had been jailed and Fénix had not returned calls seeking comment on the unauthorized well-digging.
By 2024, residents had faced three years of judicial processes for opposing the development project. In March 2023, seven campesinos were exonerated of charges of violent protest, but one of them has since been ordered to submit to a retrial.
The community of La Labor orbits the old hacienda that, until 2012, processed the coffee cultivated in the vicinity in Chipilapa canton, Ahuachapán. Homes of sheet metal and adobe flank a spring that provides water and draws internal tourism near a 96-acre protected natural area.
Part of the protected area has been subjected to clandestine logging. Francisco Cinco, 31, walks along a parched dirt path leading to nearby hot springs where some community members have reforested. As their spokesperson, Francisco communicates the needs of local residents and promotes tourism at the hacienda.
Every morning, women travel to communal washing places with their clothes and children. Sundays are especially busy. They start arriving at 4 a.m. to guarantee a space and take advantage of the basins full of water. Some men meet them mid-morning to carry the clothing back home.
The La Labor spring is threatened by Fénix, a company that plans to construct 1,764 houses on the outskirts of the Pan-American Highway, close to communities that refill their home water reservoirs every two days. The construction firm dug a well 160 meters deep, drawing protests from residents. Days later, three people were detained on accusations of invading private property. They spent almost two months in jail until they were conditionally freed at the end of January 2022 to stand trial while at home.
Antolino Artero, 82, helps his daughter to farm tilapia. Every three months they produce around 200 pounds for their own consumption. Another 17 families also engage in this farming, which does not produce any surplus for sale. “We enjoy the water here. If they take it away, we will be forced to buy it by the jug. We see that President Bukele is busy at work, so we ask him to pay attention to this attempted theft from the community,” he says.
Enio Mauricio Ramírez, seven, plays in an empty water tank that La Labor Hacienda used to wash coffee. Spanning 25 by 15 meters, it used to be filled directly from the local water supply through a canal that stretched 300 meters. It was taken out of service in 2012 and now, in ruins, serves as a mini soccer field.
A 10-minute walk separates the community from the hot springs of the geothermal area of Ahuachapán, where small craters and streams bubble and steam. Residents of La Labor Hacienda use the space as an internal tourism attraction, and some take their vegetables to be steam-cooked and shared there.
Adriana Monserrat arrives every afternoon to take hot water from the pipes near her home and take a bath in a large bucket. Other residents also travel to this point to fill up their water reserves.
Maura Díaz is the president of the Association of Women of the La Labor Hacienda. She started leading the group of women ten years ago and now farms tilapia. “That housing development will have an impact. It is a looming problem for us. We receive just a trickle of water, but it is ours, and serves almost 12,000 people,” she says.
Every afternoon, families flock to swim in the 60-meter-long main pond. The community controls the distribution of water and maintains the public facilities and pipes.
In the morning on Monday, January 17, 2022, some residents got together to repair and seal one of the spigots to the main water pipeline. Some brought cement and sand; others bricks and tools.
Ten years ago, Flor Cinco, now 50, drew her home’s water from the Chipilapa river through three kilometers of pipes that she independently constructed from her own investment. Whenever the water begins trickling slowly, she travels her pipeline in search of snags. “Often animals will bite the tubes, and I have to go find the damage in order to fix it. Here people are scared to defend themselves, seeing those who have been arrested,” she says. Flor is the sister of Rosa Cinco, one of the three people imprisoned as of February 2022 for protesting against Fénix.
The La Labor stream supplies 500 families in an area protected by the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources since 2018. Residents living in precarious homes of wood, sheet metal, adobe, and cement now defend their water.
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