Environmental, business, government and local entities have launched the Water Fund to improve the quality and quantity of freshwater in Guatemala. The Fund will work with water coming from the Motagua-Polochic watershed system in the eastern Sierra de las Minas Biosphere Reserve, says executive director Lorena Calvo.

The project is an initiative of the Defenders of Nature Foundation, developed in partnership with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), and with backing from other organizations and companies, both national and international, she told Tierramérica.

Due to waste and mismanagement, the rivers of the Motagua-Polochic watershed flow at a lower volume each year, a problem exacerbated by other environmental issues like contamination, Calvo said.

Carlos Morales, of WWF Central America, said the reserve has been a protected area since 1990 and its rivers supply the lower portion of the sierra, in Motagua Valley.