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

Lining up for water in the aftermath Hurricane Mitch, Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Photo credit: Debbie Larson, NWS, International Activities - NOAA.
in facilitating post-conflict dialogue and building
confidence between countries. The Plan provided
a platform for high-level dialogue and strengthened
cooperation among border communities.
The Trifinio region has become the main
experimental laboratory for regional integration
in Central America. It represents the only
transboundary area where an institutional framework
has been established. Since its inception,
the Trifinio Plan has built on existing national
development initiatives to reach its primary
objective of increasing regional integration and
collaboration (López 2004).
The Trifinio Plan has provided the means for
El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras to begin
to coordinate their efforts to ensure the integrated,
harmonic, and balanced development of their
border region (OEA-IICA 1992). The Plan is an
effort to make the progression toward Central
American integration more tangible. While its
objectives are still somewhat modest, the Plan
has provided a number of real solutions to
specific problems that are of genuine concern to
the people in the Trifinio region (OEA-IICA 1992).
Since institutions are not actors in their own
rights, they must influence the behavior of those
subject to their rules, decision-making procedures,
and programs in order to become effective (IHDP,
1999). The Trifinio Plan clearly has influenced the
behavior of its member states. The Plan’s
trinational public institutional framework has
fostered genuine high-level cooperation without
the posturing and turf wars that often characterize
collaborative efforts among ministries.
The new management program for the
upper Lempa River basin has the potential to
generate mechanisms that are more capable of
improving the river’s water quality while simultaneously
promoting sustainable development.
However, the design and implementation of an
integrated program will require powerful leadership
—an order which could most naturally be filled
by El Salvador, since it is the main beneficiary of
any positive change in the upper river basin. With
proper guidance, the new management program
Cattle in a reservoir above a community water system, Lempa Basin,
El Salvador. Photo credit: David R. Huskins, University of Akron.
Chapter 2. Hydropolitical Vulnerability in Central America and the West Indies — 41