WFP regional director to visit Honduras to assess El Niño drought impact

Lena Savelli, the World Food Programme’s regional director for Latin America and the Caribbean, will travel to Honduras next week as drought linked to a strong El Niño event hits the country’s dry corridor.

Savelli is due to arrive on Sunday and meet President Nasry “Tito” Asfura. She will assess communities affected by a shortage of rain in central and southern Honduras, where the dry conditions have caused crop losses and created difficulties for families dependent on subsistence farming.

The WFP official will also visit projects that provide technical support and market access to small agricultural producers. The projects operate under the Fresh Ration initiative, which aims to strengthen school meals in municipalities affected by the drought.

The Honduran government has placed 103 of the country’s 298 municipalities under a red emergency alert. The water crisis threatens crops, livestock and supplies for human consumption. In Tegucigalpa, authorities have tightened water rationing as the levels of the main reservoirs supplying the capital fall.

Honduras’ National Center for Atmospheric, Oceanographic and Seismic Studies said the country continues to experience conditions that are warmer and drier than normal, associated with a strong El Niño event. It reported a cumulative rainfall deficit of between 100 and 200 millimeters. The United Nations has mobilized $86 million to address the emergency, including $20 million announced in mid-August by the UN resident coordinator in Honduras, Alejandro Álvarez.