“This is a dam to confront the drought, which will help us to protect our forests and to increase our crop yields,” declared Darío Figueroa from the community of Manzaragua in the southern Honduran department of El Paraíso. The dam, which will make it possible to improve production of vegetables and legumes, was built with the support of Swiss cooperation agencies and the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, at a cost of 75,000 dollars.

It will benefit some 300 families, who collaborated in its construction and are now participating in a reforestation project in the small basin surrounding the dam, Figueroa told Tierramérica.

José Mejía of the Ministry of Agriculture told Tierramérica that local farmers will now have a permanent supply of water and will no longer suffer from the effects of drought.