Honduras
Given its conditions of poverty and high debt, Honduras is one of the priority countries in the region for Spanish Cooperation. Only 18% of the rural population has access to safe water services, and 20% of the total population lacks basic sanitation (JMP 2017). Diarrhoeal diseases continue to kill many children.
The FCAS has worked in Honduras through nine programmes in which it has invested 45.7 million euros: in Comayagua, Choluteca, Santa Rosa Copán, Gracias Lempira, Siguatepeque and the departments of Valle and La Paz. The direct beneficiaries of these programmes are an estimated 300,000 people, added to which should be the indirect beneficiaries of improved water and sanitation services and infrastructure.
All programmes focus on three components: infrastructure, integrated water resources management and a strong institutional strengthening component.
Works under the Santa Rosa Copán HND-001-B Programme, focused on the adequate management and final disposal of the wastewater generated, were completed. During 2020, an agreement was signed with the NGO HELVETAS Honduras for the institutional strengthening of EMASAR, the service provider. It also includes a sanitation emergency plan to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 and the rehabilitation of basic water and sanitation infrastructure in prioritised centres.
In this same municipality, Programme HND-017 is being developed, the main objective of which is to improve the collection of drinking water through the construction of a dam. At the end of 2020, after many setbacks, the legalisation of the land by the landowners was about to be finalised.
In rural areas of the departments of Valle and La Paz, the FCAS is developing a programme to increase water and sanitation coverage and integrated management of the lower and middle basin of the Goascorán river, the implementation of which has also been affected by the impact of COVID. In the framework of this rural programme, which affects 11 municipalities, many works had started in 2020 but had to be suspended due to the Honduran government’s mobility restriction measures when the pandemic struck. An extension was therefore necessary to complete them and to complete the social and environmental components.
In Programme HND-016-B, during the first months of 2020, the construction of complementary works was completed, consisting of improvements to the intake works, construction of new tanks, renovation of existing tanks and installation of macro-meters. In the second half of the year, work centred around the process of closing the programme, including the drafting of the final report and the preparation of the supporting account. During the last months of the year, the final evaluation and sustainability plans were socialised, the latter being a tool of great interest for the provider UMASG (Unidad Municipal Agua y Saneamiento de Gracias) in order to achieve technical, administrative and financial sustainability as a service provider.
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In 2020, another programme was completed in the Department of Lempira, which is in the process of justification, and which consists of improving public management and access to drinking water and sanitation in the city of Gracias. With the grant from the Cooperation Fund for Water and Sanitation, important infrastructure works have been carried out (construction of a drinking water treatment plant, construction of a wastewater plant), as well as the institutional strengthening of the Municipal Water Unit of Gracias with the aim of providing sustainable drinking water and sanitation coverage to a population of more than 27,000 beneficiaries.
The second phase of the Comayagua Valley Water and Sanitation Project (HND-018-B), which will build the drinking water distribution networks for the municipalities of Ajuterique and Lejamaní, began in 2020. The programme has a strong institutional strengthening component for the provider Aguas de la Sierra de Montecillos, created in the previous phase of the programme.
At the beginning of 2020, the implementation of Programme HND-019 – Optimisation of the Water and Sanitation Systems of the City of Choluteca – began, which aims to improve the living conditions of the population of the city of Choluteca through the promotion of inclusive and sustainable coverage provided by the comprehensive drinking water and sanitation system.
One of the most important aspects of the Cooperation Fund for Water and Sanitation (FCAS) during the year 2020 was the approval of a new programme in Siguatepeque, the HND-20-B “Improvement of water resource management in water-producing micro-watersheds and improvement of drinking water and sanitation services in peri-urban and rural areas of the municipality of Siguatepeque, Comayagua”, for an amount of 3.26 million euros. The programme aims to improve conditions in the peri-urban and rural areas of the municipality of Siguatepeque through the implementation of a comprehensive project to ensure a quality drinking water and sanitation service, environmental protection of micro-watersheds, aquifers and watercourses where wastewater is discharged.
