The Forgotten Victims of Hidalgo

The author, Carlos Carabaña, in the field. For the story, his team worked more than seven months, obtained various confidential documents and archival video, took 10 field trips and interviewed 30 cancer patients and others.

Inside Story: The Forgotten Victims of Hidalgo

For decades, inhabitants of Hidalgo near Mexico City have been poisoned by toxic chemicals and sewage contaminating the waters flowing toward the Endhó dam. Toxic sewage from Mexico City and industrial corridors created an environmental hell for Hidalgo residents over the past 40 years. Although the authorities knew that the water from their wells was contaminated, sickening the residents, they simply ignored them.

A team of more than a dozen journalists and videographers documented this powerful but neglected story for Mexico’s Channel N+ Focus. It was awarded Third Place, Outstanding Feature Story, Large, for the Society of Environmental Journalists’ 22nd Annual Awards for Reporting on the Environment. Judges called it a “strong production of this otherwise shockingly unknown story. Through excellent use of archival footage, previously unreleased documents and powerful, heartbreaking imagery, this story shone a light on and gave voice to people living in and imperiled by an atrociously polluted environment."

SEJournal recently caught up with investigative reporter Carlos Carabaña of N+ Focus by email to talk about the award-winning project. Here is the conversation.

SEJournal: How did you get your winning story idea?

Carlos Carabaña: We were searching for stories about “huachicoleo de agua” (basically, people who steal and sell water) in Tula, Hidalgo, and a source told us about the Endhó Dam. So we went on a field trip to the area. After meeting and talking with some of the 15,000 residents who had been abandoned for decades by the government and local administration, we decided it was a story that needed to be told.

SEJournal: What was the biggest challenge in reporting the piece and how did you solve that challenge?

Carabaña: The biggest challenge was to decide which findings and stories to include in the piece and which ones to omit. The environment and health issues concerning the Endhó Dam have been going on for decades and have affected so many people; some findings, stories and problems had to be ruled out even though they were quite shocking.

 

‘The authorities, who knew about it

from a series of studies conducted in

2007, 2010 and 2018, simply ignored

it as cancer deaths in the region tripled.’

 

Another challenge was trying to get a reaction from the authorities. We had several confidential documents that proved that the three levels of government knew about these problems, including the fact that seven water wells were poisoning the 15,000 residents. The authorities, who knew about it from a series of studies conducted in 2007, 2010 and 2018, simply ignored it as cancer deaths in the region tripled.

SEJournal: What most surprised you about your reporting?

Carlos Carabaña

Carabaña: Seven water wells that supply the communities of the Endhó Dam have been contaminated with heavy metals for decades because of sewage and waste from Mexico City, several industrial corridors and hospitals, a refinery and a thermoelectric plant. After several demonstrations and protests by residents of the Endhó Dam, the government built five water treatment plants. In 2019, the government held a big inauguration party and told the residents that they could finally drink from the wells; but the government handed over water treatment plants that were unfinished and nonoperational.

OK, so maybe the government didn’t give a damn about these 15,000 people. But, telling the residents that they could drink the water when they, the government, knew it was contaminated with heavy metals, … that’s evil.

SEJournal: How did you decide to tell the story and why?

Carabaña: After three field trips to the area and some key findings, we made a list of the core issues that affected the Endhó Dam: issues related to health, water, scarcity, poverty and so on. We then analyzed which were the best stories to convey each issue, determined how to present the key findings, and added background and context.

We are a TV channel and an on-demand platform, so we have to produce two different pieces: a five-minute video for the news program and a 15-minute video for the on-demand platform. Also, we wrote a story for our media internet outlet. We decided to do these three complementary pieces to reach the maximum audience and be able to tell the story in a proper way.

SEJournal: Does the issue covered in your story have a disproportionate impact on people of low income, or people with a particular ethnic or racial background? What efforts, if any, did you make to include perspectives of people who may feel that journalists have left them out of public conversation over the years?

Carabaña: Most of the 15,000 Endhó Dam residents have low incomes. It is the abandonment of an entire community: First, their lands were taken away, then their water was contaminated and finally they were left to die alone. An abandonment by the three levels of government and by administration after administration. Sewage and wastewater from Mexico City, several industrial corridors and hospitals, a refinery and a thermoelectric plant have created an environmental hell north of Tula.

 

‘This contamination reached the

Endhó Dam’s drinking water wells, and

for decades has poisoned, drop by drop,

thousands of human beings.’

 

This contamination reached the Endhó Dam’s drinking water wells, and for decades has poisoned, drop by drop, thousands of human beings. We tried to give the residents the space to tell their stories and we contributed with context, background and investigative findings about how this environmental hell was created.

SEJournal: What would you do differently now, if anything, in reporting or telling the story and why?

Carabaña: I would have increased the range of diseases to look for among the health problems of the area. Basically, with the help of a local organization and using the INAI platform (Mexican Freedom of Information Act), we searched federal files for statistics on cancer and respiratory diseases. I would have liked to search for more diseases and over a wider range of years.

SEJournal: What lessons have you learned from your story?

Carabaña: As we say in Spanish, “Piensa mal y acertarás” (or “Think the worst and you won’t be far wrong,” according to the Collins dictionary). As I said before, I can understand if government officials and agencies didn’t solve the problem of the contaminated drinking water due to budget problems or a lack of political power. But the government told the residents that the problem was solved when they knew that the water was still poisoning the community. That sounds like some kind of supervillain plot.

SEJournal: What practical advice would you give to other reporters pursuing similar projects, including any specific techniques or tools you used and could tell us more about?

Carabaña: Build a great team. In N+ Focus, our investigation bureau, journalists work for months alongside producers, and we make creative decisions together. From the start, we involve the product design area, so they can contribute to the research with ideas. In the bureau, we speak to each other about our investigations, so if someone has a source or an idea about how to access information, we contribute. We have great leaders who trust our work. Effort, analysis, trust in your partners, methodology and, the most important tool, patience.

SEJournal: Could you characterize the resources that went into producing your prize-winning reporting (estimated costs, i.e., legal, travel or other; or estimated hours spent by the team to produce)? Did you receive any grants or fellowships to support it?

 

‘We searched the archive of the

television station and found

journalistic reports — from the

1980s — on this contamination.’

 

Carabaña: This work was carried out over more than seven months. We obtained various confidential documents using transparency and source work tools. We analyzed the public agenda and databases, and went on 10 field trips to the affected area. To document the abandonment of the 15,000 residents by the various governments and administrations, we interviewed 30 cancer patients, other people affected and scientists. We also searched the archive of the television station and found journalistic reports — from the 1980s — on this contamination.

SEJournal: Is there anything else you would like to share about this story or environmental journalism that wasn’t captured above?

Carabaña: The importance of following up. The carrying out and publication of this investigation led the authorities to sit down again with the people affected, after having ignored them for almost three years. Resources were allocated to operationalize the water treatment plants that were delivered incomplete. Additionally, the working groups with the Ministry of the Environment and other authorities were resumed, in order to set up an environmental restoration program for the Endhó Dam. The new governor of Hidalgo, Julio Menchaca, promised to address the health problems of the residents.

Throughout 2023, we have continued to report on these political commitments: publishing stories about the deadlines, about the state of the projects and working groups, and asking politicians about specific deadlines. We plan to do so until all these commitments have been fulfilled.

Carlos Carabaña is an investigative reporter from Galicia, Spain. From 2012 to 2015, he lived in Berlin, where he worked on stories about migration issues and depopulation. Since 2015, he has been living in Latin America, based in Mexico, covering issues relating to environmentalism and climate change, human rights, politics and violence, with reporting in Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Mexico, Colombia and Guatemala. He was part of the research bureau of mexicopuntocom and El Universal. Since 2022, he has been working at Focus, the research bureau of N+.

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* From the weekly news magazine SEJournal Online, Vol. 10, No. 8. Content from each new issue of SEJournal Online is available to the public via the SEJournal Online main page. Subscribe to the e-newsletter here. And see past issues of the SEJournal archived here.