Communities join cleanup campaign in rivers of the Trifinio Region

Sinuapa, Ocotepeque, Honduras. Wednesday, November 9, 2022. The Tri-national Border Community of the Lempa River (MTFRL) today increased its support from 17 local governments and communities, which joined the “Awareness and Cleanup Campaign for the Rivers of the Trifinio Region,” which feed the Motagua, Ulúa, and Lempa rivers in Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador.

This Wednesday, November 9, environmental technicians from the Association, together with municipal staff and residents living on the banks of the Ostúa River in the municipalities of Asunción Mita and Santa Catarina Mita, in the department of Jutiapa, Guatemala, carried out cleanup activities on the tributary whose waters flow into the binational lake (Guatemala and El Salvador) of Guija and the trinational Lempa River.

The campaign is being carried out from November 7 to 11, with the support of the population and 17 local governments of the border municipalities that make up the Trinational Association. It began on the morning of Monday, November 7, on the Frío River in the municipality of Santa Fe in Ocotepeque, Honduras, which feeds into the Lempa River.

MTFRL technicians are responsible for raising awareness among the population, guiding them in the separation of waste types, and coordinating the cleanup campaign, which is carried out with the support of personnel and equipment from the municipalities, as well as members of the communities where the Association's various projects and programs are implemented.

On Tuesday, August 8, members of three communities where the Food and Nutrition Security Literacy Program (AlfaSAN) is implemented, along with personnel from the municipality of La Labor in Ocotepeque, Honduras, cleaned up the areas near and along the banks of the Potrero River, a tributary of the Lempa River. 

Two Salvadoran municipalities in the department of Chalatenango also joined this campaign. Technicians from the Trinational Commission, with the support of the communities and staff from the Dulce Nombre de María mayor's office, cleaned up the communities and banks of the Sumpul River.

In the municipality of Citalá, where the Lempa River enters from Honduras, Mayor Alberto Ochoa accompanied the communities and municipal staff in collecting tons of trash.

The Trifinio region is the territory where the three main rivers of the three countries originate and feed into: the (binational) Motagua River, which originates in Guatemala and flows into the coasts of that country and Honduras; the Ulúa River, which originates and flows into the Honduran Atlantic; and the (tri-national) Lempa River, which originates in the mountains of Olopa, Guatemala, runs along the border of Honduras and crosses El Salvador, until it flows into the Pacific Ocean.

For this reason, the Tri-national Association, with the support of the Heinrich Boll Foundation, Fons Catalan, and local governments, is implementing this campaign, which is part of the “Let's Rescue the Lempa River” project, benefiting the upper basins that supply water to the Motagua and Ulúa rivers.

To this end, environmental technicians, mayors, and communities from the municipalities of Ocotepeque, Sinuapa, La Labor, San Marcos, Santa Fe, and Concepción de Ocotepeque in Honduras are participating.

 From Guatemala: Asunción Mita, Santa Catarina Mita, in the department of Jutiapa; Esquipulas, Camotán, Jocotán, and Olopa, in Chiquimula. And from El Salvador, Candelaria de la Frontera (Santa Ana), San Francisco Morazán, Dulce Nombre de María, and Citalá in the department of Chalatenango.