Motagua River: A river that originates in Guatemala and is a threat to Honduras
An avalanche of waste and pollution that flows with the Motagua River, which rises in the highlands of Guatemala and flows into the beaches of Honduras, violates the Central American borders and threatens to unleash a diplomatic conflict between both nations.
An avalanche of waste and pollution that flows with the Motagua River, which rises in the highlands of Guatemala and flows into the beaches of Honduras, violates the Central American borders and threatens to unleash a diplomatic conflict between both nations.
Eduardo Rivera has lived his entire life in Omoa. and he has experienced the increase in garbage carried by the Motagua and the environmental damage that this generates. Photo: Carlos Palma
We clean the garbage that is not ours. Everything comes from Guatemala and we can clean it in the morning, but it is useless because in the afternoon it is already full of garbage again”, said Ricardo Alvarado, Municipal Mayor of Omoa. Photo: Carlos Palma
The contamination of water bodies is not something new in Guatemala, nor in all of Central America. According to a study by The Ocean Cleanup (CU), there are up to 25 rivers in the isthmus that cause the greatest marine pollution in the entire region, and 11 of these are in Guatemala. Photo: Carlos Palma
In 2016, when the people of Omoa began to see with sadness that the avalanches of garbage did not stop arriving, in Guatemala, government entities such as the National Institute of Seismology, Volcanology, Meteorology and Hydrology (Insivumeh), warned of the high concentration of solid and organic waste in several rivers analyzed at that time. Photo: Carlos Palma
Gustavo Cabrera, a Honduran biologist and executive director of the Omoa Conservation Corps Foundation (CCO) said that "This problem is not so easy to solve because we have to take an approach from the basin, because it does not work for us to be temporarily cleaning the beaches and mangroves if the problem is in the Motagua River basin”. Photo: Carlos Palma
Pedro Serrano, a fisherman from the Garífuna community of Masca, in Omoa, Puerto Cortés, affirms that the garbage from Guatemala affects his trade in Honduras. “(Because of) the garbage that comes out of Guatemala, there are times when the fish does not bite or flee, because it is full of garbage in a certain part and that is when you go out to sea (to fish).” Photo: Carlos Palma
What Eduardo did not understand in those days of childhood, collecting used dolls, is that all that large amount of waste that he dug up was there thanks to the Motagua, a river of 17,991 km2 in extension, which originates in the center of Guatemala, specifically in Joyabay, Quiché, more than 500 kilometers from Masca, and empties into the Honduran Caribbean Sea. Photo: Carlos Palma
The more than 50 kilometers of beaches full of garbage in Honduras show that more comprehensive measures are necessary to begin to reverse this situation. Because in addition to the issue of solid waste, there is also the issue of water quality, contaminated by wastewater, and which has, if possible, a greater environmental, economic and social impact. Photo: Carlos Palma
Although residents were already suffering from the negative effects of the contamination carried by the Motagua River, it was not until 2011 that the problem began to appear in the local media in both countries, when Ricardo Alvarado, municipal mayor of Omoa, a Honduran tourist municipality most affected by the waste carried by the river, complained both locally and internationally. Photo: Carlos Palma
Maribel Umaña, president of the Omoa Chamber of Commerce, indicates that pollution affects tourist businesses in the area. "The difficult thing with the issue of cleaning beaches along the entire coast is that it is an expense outside the budget that we manage, apart from being reflected in the impact that Omoa is being seen as a poor destination by tourists." Photo: Carlos Palma
Yessenia Rivera Vargas, a community leader from Barra del Motagua, affirms that the community she lives in is dedicated to carrying out ecological projects to clean the beaches. “In my community we dedicate ourselves to reforestation and when there are projects, we develop them. We live in a beautiful place and it has been good for me, because here we love what we do for the community.” Photo: Carlos Palma
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