Juanacatlán Falls

These once-majestic falls, the first Mexican landscape on a postage stamp back in 1899, have been reduced to a trickle of foul-smelling effluent.

At the start of the twentieth century, the falls provided hydro-electric power for Guadalajara and turned the wheels of a cotton and woolen mill, the ruins of which now stand to one side.

Since the implements of the North American Free Trade Agreement or NAFTA in 1994, the region has been transformed into one of Mexico's largest industrial zones with factories dumping their wastes into the river.

But it is not just Cancer and Leukemia, government health statistics have also shown that respiratory disease and kidney failure are also among the highest causes of death in El Salto.

In February 2020 the government of Jalisco launched an investigation into the source of heavy metals and other pollutants in the Grande de Santiago River, which feeds the once-spectacular Juanacatlán Falls.