By Marle Aguilar-Ponce
For almost the last 5 years the beaches of Honduras, have been affected by large amounts of garbage from the Motagua river of Guatemala. The Motagua River is one of the most important and the largest river of Guatemala.
The mouth of this river form part of the Guatemala/Honduras border; just the last year 2016, Omoa Municipality of Honduras, reported that daily more than 600 tons of garbage from the Motagua River, affecting their beaches economy and tourist; The efforts made by the municipal and national authorities from Honduras to clean these beaches are big, however, the costs of these activities are too high.
Some reports affirmed that almost the 70% of waste (plastics, bottles, tires, organic waste and more) are generated by the capital Guatemala City dumped untreated into the Motagua River. But the problem of the Pollution of Motagua River, is extended not only to the neighbor country directly, also affects both, the biodiversity and ecosystems of the Mesoamerican Reef System (The second largest reef in the world after the Great Barrier Reef in Australia) and of the Ramsar sites: Punta Manabique (Guatemala) and Cuyamel-Omoa (Honduras).
After a lot of pressure about the currently situation of the Motagua River, the Government of Guatemala search and plan solution about: Plastic retention, national project for water treatment and more, also the Government of Honduras agree to support and work together to the Government of Guatemala to reach the cleaning of this important ad essential river.
UNEP/UNESCO/BMUV course program 