- Click to share on Facebook (Opens in a new window)
- Click to share on Twitter (Opens in a new window)
- Click here to share on LinkedIn (Opens in a new window)
- Click to email a friend (Opens in a new window)
(CNN) - The drought that affects Honduras has caused the death of more than a thousand head of cattle and the shortage of water for human consumption, according to data from the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock.
Faced with the lack of rain due to the widespread cannula resulting from the El Niño phenomenon, the government decreed emergency by drought on September 5.
The lack of water is so severe that clashes are already reported between the National Police and residents who intend to stop the construction of a housing complex in a nature reserve that, they say, would affect 30 percent of those living in Tegucigalpa, the Honduran capital.
The low level of the only two dams that supply water to more than 1.2 million capitals, according to official data, reaches the extreme that in certain sectors they only receive the service every 45 days.
It is in the high areas, where the water through the pipe does not reach the houses, “there is no water,” laments Manuel Salgado, who has to buy a 159-liter barrel of water for about three dollars to meet his needs.
(Credit: ORLANDO SIERRA / AFP / Getty Images)
That figure is high for the Honduran, who on average has a salary of $ 356 per month, according to World Bank data.
That high cost is recognized by President Juan Orlando Hernández: "It is a difficult situation, it is shocking how much people pay when water is scarce, and the one who pays the most is the poor," he said.
This expenditure is aggravated for the sellers of the markets, such as Luz Idalia Macareño, who says that in the San Miguel de Tegucigalpa market, which he manages, we must avoid health risks because “if there is no water, we must close.”
Small businesses, like the laundry that Ana Carías manages, see the number of orders diminished, because “there are customers who go to others, they decide to leave their clothes for two three days but there are customers who don't and that is a loss for us”, pointed.
Faced with the citizen's claim, the authorities of the City Hall in charge of water supply say that very little can be done, because according to the municipal councilor Juan Carlos García "if it does not rain in the next few days the rationings can be lengthened."
Faced with this not very encouraging scenario, the capital mayor Nasry Azfura asks the population to “pray” for the rains to come while announcing the construction of two new dams to supply the 1,259,903 inhabitants of the capital, according to data from the National Institute of Statistics.
Meteorologists indicate that the lack of rain in Tegucigalpa is due to the extensive cannula resulting from the El Niño phenomenon that left an irregular winter, and they assure that if the crisis for the water supply in the capital does not rain in the next 15 days It will sharpen more than it already is.
Drought Tegucigalpa
