Within the next decade, the Motagua River Basin, the largest in the Central American country of Guatemala, will be restored to its pristine state. Thus, it will no longer pollute the Caribbean Sea and threaten a massive and important coral reef.
“The Alliance is not just an initiative, it is a socio-economic and environmental movement,” explains Chloé Dubois, co-founder and executive director of the Canada-based Ocean Legacy Foundation, one of the organizations part of the Alliance for the Motagua River. “One of the main differences between this and previous initiatives is that we are aware that this is a problem that requires everybody’s contribution.”
The Motagua River basin covers almost 17,000 km2 in a 486 km path along 96 municipalities. And yet, it is responsible for 2% of the plastic emissions in the ocean, dumping at least 85,000 tons of waste every year. This initiative is crucial for the survival of the Mesoamerican reef, the largest barrier reef in the Western Hemisphere, which stretches some 1,1127 kilometres between Mexico and Honduras and is home to 60 types of hard corals, more than 500 fish species, five species of marine turtles, and one of the world’s most impressive gatherings of whale sharks. The Alliance for the Motagua River – a pioneer coalition made of more than 50 private and public organizations – intends to invest in education, public policies, infrastructure for regeneration, water treatment, waste management, and cleanup task forces while also pushing to increase recycling rates of plastic waste, and enhance the composting of organic refuse.
