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When the rivers rise in Central America, time is of the essence. With support from European Union Humanitarian Aid, Trócaire and local partners are working to strengthen community preparedness for disasters.
The winding Polochic River, Alta Verapaz, Guatemala. Photo: Santiago Billy/ Trócaire
Both Guatemala and Honduras have experienced multi-layered crises throughout the last century. Although the darkest days of civil war are behind them, persistently high levels of violence, along with an intense exposure to natural disasters and climate extremes, mean that the population of this region remains highly vulnerable to shocks. Poverty and hunger levels here are the highest in Latin America, and the climate crisis has now added a force multiplier of threat to this fragile region.
Trócaire has been working in this region since the organisation’s early days, back in the 1970s when both countries were experiencing great turmoil: civil war in Guatemala and military rule in Honduras. What is very clear from decades of experience in Guatemala and Honduras is that the capacity of local and national organisations is very strong, particularly when responding to natural disasters. As the challenge of climate change has intensified, so too has the strength of local responders in the region.
Since 2021, with support from European Union Humanitarian Aid, Trócaire has been working on an ambitious disaster risk reduction project that harnesses this experience. The ‘Let’s Work Together’ project aims to contribute to a more sustainable and localised model of disaster preparedness in Guatemala and Honduras, strengthening not only community capacities and local partner organisations to prepare and respond but also the role of local government (municipalities) in disaster management as a pivotal entity with key responsibilities in the national disaster management system.
Ricardo Caal, from the village lagartos, in Panzos, Alta Verapaz Guatemala, shows a donated helmet that they keep in a warehouse for emergencies. Photo: Santiago Billy/Trócaire
The project is implemented in alliance with CEPREDENAC, a regional governmental entity that helps to promote disaster prevention policies and good practices in Central America and Dominican Republic; with two pillar implementing partners on the ground: the Commission of Mennonite Social Action (CASM) in Honduras and Pastoral Social Cáritas, Diócesis de la Verapaz (PSV) in Guatemala.
Together with Trócaire, these organisations decided to form a project that would focus on three of the poorest and most flood-vulnerable regions of the area. With support from European Union Humanitarian Aid, the appropriately named, ‘Let’s work together! Strengthening partnerships for a sustainable model of disaster preparedness and response in high-risk river basins of Guatemala and Honduras’ programme began in 2021. It’s a title that reflects the great spirit of determination that flows through these communities and European Union Humanitarian Aid’s deepening commitment to help the region cope with natural disasters of intensifying severity. Following the first two-year phase of the project, European Union Humanitarian Aid committed funding for an additional two years, and so phase two began in 2023 and will continue until April of next year.
Raymundo Bol Tul, secretary of the local emergency committee of Aldea Canlun, Panzos, Alta Verapaz, Guatemala. The committees are representative bodies for citizen participation. Raymundo is viewing river data provided by the project that is available on smartphones. Photo: Billy Santiago/Trócaire
The river basins of Central America are critical lifelines and have long supported population settlements, particularly among the region’s rural and indigenous communities. But years of deforestation and monocropping have reduced the effectivity of natural drainage. The indigenous population of the region has already been disproportionately affected by the environmental degradation of the rivers that has come about from mining and pollution, but the most immediate threat now comes from rapidly rising water levels, as climate change speeds up and rainfall becomes heavier and more erratic. More active and frequent hurricane seasons have led to more sudden and destructive floods.
For too many people in this region, the climate crisis is already a central part of their lives. The devastation of hurricanes- most notably Eta and Iota- is still evident. The hurricane season of 2020 was unusually ferocious, with 30 named storms in the region. Seven of these storms became major hurricanes. At the time, it was the most storms on record for one year, surpassing the 28 from 2005, and the second highest number of hurricanes on record.
The worst of these hurricanes came at the end of the year, when both Eta and Iota came in quick succession in November. While the entire world, including Central America, was caught up in the worst days of the COVID-19 pandemic, the devastation of these two hurricanes affected 7.5 million people in the region. The extreme rainfall associated with Eta drove catastrophic flash floods, with many rivers bursting their banks deadly landslides across the region. Flooding and landslides contributed to at least 74 deaths in Honduras and 60 in Guatemala.
Gustavo Adolfo Ayala, 53, town leader, land local community coordinator in the region of Santa Barbara, Honduras, sits beside river level monitoring equipment. The traffic light system indicates the level of alarm for flooding. Photo: Santiago Billy/Trócaire.
This disaster could not have come at a worse time for the people of Honduras and Guatemala, who were only beginning to experience the deep effects- physical, mental and economic- of the coronavirus pandemic. For them, it reaffirmed the fact that their region was disproportionately affected by the climate crisis.
Honduras is among the top countries worldwide affected by climate change. The northwestern region of the country, including areas like Santa Bárbara, is one of the most impacted zones. This area faces severe meteorological phenomena, including increasingly strong tropical cyclones each year. The effects of climate change have led to more frequent and intense storms, with tremendous destructive potential.
When the ‘Let’s Work Together’ disaster risk reduction project started, two things were very clear: firstly, in order to be effective, the project would have to focus on early-warning/early-action systems and secondly, those systems would have to be as locally owned and led as possible. In addition to this, a method of post-disaster assistance to the most affected households would have to be built in. The system would have to be as locally trusted as possible in order to function optimally.
Nelso Martínez, 44, Project Manager on Trabajemos Juntos (Let’s Work Together), CASM, Honduras. Photo: Santiago Billy/Trócaire.
We are working with these communities because our goal is to ensure the strengthening of risk management. We want them to feel prepared and empowered when it comes to handling issues like floods, landslides, and emergencies. This preparation is crucial for situations where their communities might be completely cut off
Nelso Martínez, Let’s Work Together project manager, CASM
Local emergency committees were organised through the programme and these committees ensure that there is a structured system of preparation and response- from community to central administration level. When an emergency strikes, these committees are particularly crucial for communication.
Gustavo Adolfo Ayala, 53, is town leader, local committee coordinator and water administration prosecutor in Inguaya, Santa Barbara. He explained to us how the programme gave local people the opportunity to unite in organisation and to train on individual survival skills:
“We started to realize that only by being organized could we truly achieve what we
wanted. And that’s how the community made a huge leap forward, thanks to the
CASM institution, which has come, strengthened us, and trained us in various areas.
One example is that we’ve taken swimming courses—not to become professional
swimmers, but to learn how to rescue someone who is drowning.”
– Gustavo Adolfo Ayala, 53, Honduras
Gustavo Adolfo Ayala, 53, is town leader, local committee coordinator and water administration prosecutor in Inguaya, Santa Barbara, Honduras. Photo: Santiago Billy/Trócaire
Another key aspect of early-warning/early-action is ensuring the right infrastructure is in place to track the patterns of the weather. In the Polochic river basin of Guatemala, where the project is implemented with a mainly indigenous population, PSV works alongside local and municipal emergency committees to strengthen those early-warning/early-action systems.
Part of this involves the installation and monitoring of cameras upriver so that levels of water can be observed. When the water reaches a certain level a warning system is activated. If and when it reaches the next level, the critical threshold, an alarm system will sound and the emergency protocols are followed.
Solar panel and instruments used for detecting the river fluctuations near Canlun Village, Panzos, Alta Verapaz, Guatemala. Photo: Santiago Billy/Trócaire.
Solar panel and instruments used for detecting the river fluctuations near Canlun Village, Panzos, Alta Verapaz, Guatemala. Photo: Santiago Billy/Trócaire.
A robust humanitarian response capacity is the critical final piece of the puzzle in any successful disaster risk reduction approach, because as much as you can prepare for and mitigate the effects of natural disasters, you can never fully anticipate the force of the disaster, or the need for immediate assistance. The municipal authorities are also involved in organising all aspects of shelter provision and logistics to ensure that local populations have somewhere to stay, sometimes for a prolonged period of time.
In fact, what is remarkable in Central America is the low fatality rate for many hurricanes, which is often down to the success of programmes such as ‘Let’s Work Together’. It is about a joint, community-led effort, infused with participatory methodologies that progressively improve levels of understanding and empowerment.
Trócaire’s European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations Officer - Gustavo Reyes gives a talk about emergencies to people specialising in risk management. Photo: Billy Santiago/Trócaire
It is hoped that the lessons from this binational, community-led effort will provide a framework for future disaster risk reduction programmes in the region. With the support of European Union Humanitarian Aid, Trócaire and our partners are standardising and documenting the main lessons of the programme; working alongside academic institutions to generate tools and practices for organisations, authorities and communities across Central America.
As the climate crisis intensifies rapidly in this region, it is clear that community-led solutions to natural disasters must come centre stage, but also that all levels of responders – individual, community, civil society, local, regional and national government and international donors – have a part to play.
