How a Guatemalan river clean-up could help save the oceans

The Motagua River basin, the largest in Guatemala, covers an area of nearly 17,000 square kilometres in a 486 kilometres path along 96 municipalities. This enormous and vital watercourse, which empties into the Caribbean Sea, transports at least 8,500 tonnes of waste annually. This influx of debris directly threatens the Mesoamerican reef, the largest barrier reef in the Western Hemisphere, which stretches nearly 700 miles between Mexico and Honduras, and is a biodiversity hotspot.

The 60 types of hard corals found there are home to over 500 fish species, five species of marine turtles and one of the world’s largest gatherings of whale sharks, according to WWF.

"It is one of the ten largest landfills in Latin America and six million people throw waste into that landfill. This river alone is responsible for the emission of 2% of plastic into the ocean. We are dumping waste very badly," said Jeanne Samayoa, a sustainable urbanism specialist and president of Haciendo Eco, a Guatemalan civil movement advocating for waste reduction.

Efforts to clean this body of water have been the aim of multiple initiatives so far, but the challenge persists: the more trash that is removed from the river, the more seems to be disposed into it.

"The Rio Motagua is an incredibly complex situation where you have a river that can fluctuate sometimes ten feet in a matter of days with heavy floods and rains, with rivers that are going eight or nine knots with giant trees, debris and all sorts of trash coming down it," said Alex Schulze, CEO and co-founder of 4Ocean, a public benefit corporation dedicated to cleaning beaches and oceans and repurposing trash into bracelets while empowering local women. "It is incredibly tough to manage and stop all that plastic from reaching the coastlines and heading out into the ocean."  

Their efforts in Guatemala are focused around Puerto Barrio, near the mouth of the Motagua River, where they have successfully cleaned up a significant amount of the legacy plastic that has been polluting these beaches for years, Schulze added. 

Now, a pioneering coalition of over 50 private and public organisations, including both governmental and non-governmental entities from various parts of Guatemala and beyond, is setting an ambitious goal: restoring the cleanliness of the Motagua Basin within the next decade.

The Alliance for the Motagua River is led by a handful of NGOs, including the Canada-based Ocean Legacy Foundation (which previously worked in México, Costa Rica and Panamá) and the Guatemalan Haciendo Eco. They rely on on collaborative efforts and education to fulfill their goal.

"The Alliance is not just an initiative, it is a socio-economic and environmental movement," said Chloé Dubois, co-founder and executive director of Ocean Legacy. "One of the main differences between this and previous initiatives is that we are aware that this is a problem that requires everybody's contribution."

The alliance's strategy follows a proven methodology called EPIC, which they adapted to Guatemala's specific requirements. This approach involves investment in education, public policies, infrastructure for regeneration, water treatment, waste management and cleanup task-forces, among other measures, Dubois shared.

screenshot taken from Ocean Legacy's website

Jeanne Samayoa of Haciendo Eco elaborated to FairPlanet on the four pillars of EPIC. In terms of education, the emphasis is on altering behaviours and instructing children about the significance of minimising plastic usage, especially single-use plastics. It also involves a push to increase recycling rates of plastic waste and enhance the composting of organic refuse.

"If people know how to sort properly, know how to compost, they solve 75% of the pollution problem at home. That is very empowering. And we want people to know about it and put it into practice," Samayoa said.  

The educational programmes are free on WhatsApp and take just two minutes a day. "Fun and easy," Samayoa said. "Right now we are going from school to school. But what we want is for this to be included in the basic national curriculum, so every Guatemalan child learns with these new habits," she plans. 

Public policies and infrastructure

In the absence of a water and solid waste management law, which is currently under discussion in Congress, the group is collaborating with members of the so-called Bancada Motagua (a group of local deputies united by a common interest, in this case, support for the Motagua River) and the mayors of the 96 municipalities. Their goal is to secure votes in favour of initiatives aimed at rescuing the basin, with a special emphasis on prioritising the circular economy.

At the same time, the alliance's engineers are working to improve technologies for recycling, processing, utilisation and management of waste, including bio-infectious and sewage waste, in order to avoid contamination.

"Many institutions [such as the government and NGOs] are capturing waste. They make this big effort with machinery to take it out, and then a lot of this waste does not find a destination," Haciendo Eco's leader said. "What they are looking for is to be able to make the transfer of these products to a circular economy service much more efficient, and also address the generation of methane gas."

The alliance emphasises that preventing plastic waste from entering the river in the first place and effectively managing the waste that has already been produced are critical steps to maintaining the river's cleanliness.

"The way we are going to overcome this challenge is by driving awareness, leveraging our channels to help educate people about single-use plastics and do whatever we can with our partners to implement more sustainable solutions," said 4Ocean's Schulze. 

"The most important thing is to try and come up with waste management infrastructure in these surrounding communities and cities to work through the dumps and landfills that are out in Guatemala City - where a lot of the trash originates."

Chloé Dubois warns, however, that there is no single action or "silver bullet" capable of entirely solving the problem and preventing all plastic pollution.

"Actions must be a series of closely-integrated solutions that reflect the cultural and environmental climate we are working within," she said, "such as mechanisms to relieve poverty, facilitate education and literacy, foster best practices and responsive policies, conserve biodiversity and restore aquatic ecosystem health."

Learning from locals to tackle a global challenge

The Motagua River is neither the first nor will it be the last river requiring restoration. Research indicates that over than 1000 rivers account for 80 per cent of global riverine plastic emissions entering the ocean.

In Panama, the Marea Verde Association has taken an alternative approach to tackle the issue: introducing Wanda Diaz, the first renewable energy-powered machine in Latin America designed to remove floating debris from the Juan Díaz river basin.

"Our urban rivers, like those of many countries, are polluted and on the verge of extinction," Mirei Heras, President of the Board of Directors of Marea Verde Panama, said. "Marea Verde has implemented a comprehensive approach that not only stops floating waste in the river from reaching the sea, but also collects and monitors data on the rubbish collected (volume, type), biophysical parameters of the river, mapping of points where rubbish enters the river and the community perception."  

In 2023 alone, the initiative has recovered more than 45,000 pounds (23 tonnes) of plastic for recycling and more than 264,000 pounds (132 tonnes) of solid waste for proper disposal.

Heras explained that solving the problem of the rivers, and consequently of the seas, requires coordinated global actions (a treaty for the reduction of plastic production), national initiatives (efficient policies, sufficient resource allocation and capacity-building) and, at the local level, models that effectively tackle the problems faced by communities. 

She welcomes, however, the initiative of the Alliance for the Motagua River, highlighting: "Every action adds up. Rivers are like the veins of the planet, we can clean them one by one, planning their actions by understanding the physical and social characteristics of the basin where they are."

For those curious about how to address plastic pollution in their local rivers, Alex Schulze from 4Ocean offers a straightforward message: "Just start! No matter how big it is, or how small it is. If your goal is to help with the global clean-up effort, the first step is getting started.

"It is a catalyst that can start a chain reaction of other people getting involved and getting excited about making a difference for our world waterways and having an impact. Don't be afraid to take that first step forward and make it happen."

Meanwhile, Jeanne Samayoa from Haciendo Eco emphasised the significance of the EPIC methodology and outlined the essential steps for initiating local action: understanding the basin and its challenges, identifying stakeholders who can assist, evaluating gaps in public policies, implementing required actions and allowing time for change to occur.

"Nature heals itself. What we have to do is stop damaging it and fixing the human part. Nature knows how to do the rest. But it's a long-term commitment," she said.

"Nature needs time, humans need time. We don't change habits that fast, we don't change public policies that fast. So maybe [it is essential to embrace] perseverance and the conviction that it's going to be a long-term job, a marathon."

Image by Haciendo Eco.