Latin America; in English (pdf) - Transboundary Freshwater Dispute ...

Figure 2.2 Lempa River Basin.
transformed the Lempa River into one of the most
environmentally damaged basins in Central
America. Major environmental problems are
associated with dam building, deforestation, land
overuse, increasing populations, urban construction
processes, and industrial zones (López 2004).
One of the most significant sources of
deterioration is the discrepancy between landuse
capacity and its actual use. Research shows
that more than half of the land in the watershed
(almost 9500 km 2 ) is overused. Of the total
land area classified as overused, 58.4% is in
El Salvador, 23.3% is in Honduras, and 18.3%
is in Guatemala (Granados 2002). The consequences
of this are severe erosion upstream and
sedimentation downstream. Almost half (48%) of
the sedimentation deposited in the lower basin
comes from Honduran territory, 39% is produced
in El Salvador, and 13% is from Guatemala
(Granados 2002).
As noted above, foreign causation can be
considered another element promoting environmental
conflict. The risk of environmental conflict
is higher when one country is certain that environmental
pollutants are coming across the border
from a neighboring country. In the Lempa basin
however, the level of foreign causation is not so
high. This situation can be explained by the
diversity of sources of environmental deterioration
in the area, and by the geography of El Salvador,
which, located in the lower basin, is responsible
for most of the environmental deterioration in its
own portion of the basin. Problems such as the
Honduran production of sediments, which is the
highest in the area, have a high potential for
generating conflicts, if it is considered that an
excess of sediment load in El Salvador dams
could impair its power generation and that this
country satisfies most of its energy supply with the
energy generated in the Lempa’s dam system.
The third issue is dependence. Out of the
three countries involved, the one most highly
dependent on the resources of the Lempa is
El Salvador. Forty-nine percent of its territory falls
in the Lempa River Basin, and the basin is home
to 48% of its population. Three of the main
Chapter 2. Hydropolitical Vulnerability in Central America and the West Indies — 39