DEVELOPMENT-HONDURAS: The Dream of Building a City

By Thelma Mejía Reprint | | Print |

Thelma Mejía

TEGUCIGALPA, Dec 28 1999 (IPS) - The blinding sun and the 16-hour workdays are nothing when it comes to building a dream: the new Morolica, a colonial city in Honduras that was leveled just over a year ago by Hurricane Mitch.

The ‘Morolicas,’ as the city’s 2,000 residents are known, day by day, with trowel and cement mix in hand, construct their history, a new life and 312 housing units on 500 square metre lots.

They are also deciding, using professionally drafted layouts, where on the 33 hectares they will place the mayor’s office, schools, medical centre, churches, a park, telephone offices and a sports field.

The Morolican example of perserverance has been an inspiration for thousands of Hondurans left homeless by the hurricane. Together, the Morolicas lamented their misfortune and together they are building their future.

Hurricane Mitch swept through most of Central America, but hit the region’s two poorest nations hardest – Honduras and Nicaragua. The storm killed an estimated 10,000 people in the region, and caused some 8.5 billion dollars in damages to infrastructure and agriculture.

Honduras suffered losses equivalent to 77 percent of its 1997 gross domestic product (GDP), and up to 70 percent of its basic food crops were destroyed, along with seeds needed to plant future export crops.

In Morolica, the only help the townspeople have received has come from the international community and foundations, churches and other donors whose contributions have given them hope and encouragement to keep moving forward.

The Honduran government gave them the land for building “the new Morolica.” Authorities also promised the government would construct a new high school and water system, but a year after the tragedy, they have turned out to be good intentions only.

A year ago, the Morolicas won the attention of the nation and the world when news got out that the town’s mayor, Alberto Espinal, had walked three days to Tegucigalpa to report that his town had completely disappeared.

The only thing left standing was a church facade, along with the foundation of the telephone offices. The rest was swallowed up by the floods.

Founded three years after Honduran independence from Spain in 1821, Morolica was a prosperous town in the nation’s southern province of Choluteca.

The early residents worked in commerce and cattle, and were famous for exporting high-quality beef and milk, while their adobe homes had the architectural touches of the Spanish colonial era.

But the raging waters of the nearby Choluteca River erased this history, cutting a new river bed and forcing the townspeople to seek refuge or be carried away by the floods.

Now they are building a new city some 30 km northeast of its original location.

The Morolicas work an average of 16 hours each day, beginning at sunrise, and it is common to see just about anyone, from children to the elderly, taking part in the chores in order to speed up construction.

Of the 312 homes included in the original building plans, just two more are yet to be finished.

“We will be in our new homes soon, giving thanks for being alive and creating a better future for our children,” affirmed Mónica Flores.

Flores chats as she scoops up cement and lays bricks, while her three children help her after school, transporting water and construction materials in a cart.

“One thing for sure, we are all working, even the children, but they help us when they are done with class because we will not allow them to stop their studies,” she commented.

The town’s children go to school in improvised tents made of plastic sheeting, which become suffocatingly hot at mid-day when the sun’s rays are strongest – but this is a normal occurrence along the Pacific coast.

Gathered around a scale model of the town they are building, the Morolicas enthusiastically comment that the new town will be clean and orderly, as every hectare will have the appropriate building in its designated place.

“Here, in the new Morolica, the so-called urban disorder will not exist, notice how the houses are lined up so straight,” town councillor Reinery Ponce explained to IPS.

“Each resident is given plenty of land, and if now the houses are just basic units, they have been left enough space to add on in the future,” he stated.

The government has yet to rebuild the highway access road that is still in ruins more than a year after the disaster. Arriving people and goods must approach the town from the east side, instead of the south.

Flores indicated that “little by little we are moving forward. The important thing is that soon we are all going to have homes. The countries that provided assistance will never know how happy they have made us, and when we inaugurate the new Morolica we will thank God, but we will also celebrate in honour of those who helped us.”

“One is left mute after having lost everything…but at least we are alive and that is what is important,” affirmed Flores, as she grabbed her spade and dug into the ground where another of the Morolica houses is being built.

The massive destruction caused by Hurricane Mitch had its positive side, though it would seem impossible. Shacks with straw roofs that predominated in towns like Morolica are being replaced with homes made of brick or cement block, and with sewage facilities.

In the Honduran interior, the nearly 12,000 homes being built with international financial assistance will change the face of areas long marked by poverty.