Small river valleys step ahead of nature.

• Author: Savova, Nadezhda
• Position: Inter-American System

It has been nearly six years since Hurricane Mitch devastated the nations of Central America. El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua had never suffered such destruction. Huge floods caused the demolition of infrastructure and housing. With 9,346 people killed and nearly 2.4 million "affected, the hurricane proved to be a disaster of proportions not seen before in Central America. However, amid the shock and ruins, communities in two small valleys in Honduras survived without loss of life from the floods or landslides that caused the majority of deaths and property loss in the rest of the region.

How did these communities protect themselves? In the early 1990s, through the efforts of the Unit for Sustainable Development (USDE) of the Organization of American States (OAS) and the Pan American Development Foundation (PADF), community-based flood alert and vulnerability-education programs were initiated and tailored specifically for the inhabitants of villages in the small valleys of Central America.

Of the 1,671 natural disasters registered in Latin America and the Caribbean since 1960, more than two-thirds have been floods. Considering this, the Flood Hazard Mapping and Local Alert System in Small River Valleys Project (SVP) was created. The SVP helped focus the efforts of municipalities and national and international organizations on flood preparedness, launching pilot national emergency management programs in Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Costa Rica, and El Salvador. Before Hurricane Mitch, local flood-alert systems were successfully installed in the river valleys of La Masica and Arizona, in northern Honduras.

In 1995, the first pilot project was carried out in the Lean River valley, in the municipality of Arizona, a joint effort of USDE and the European Community Humanitarian Office (ECHO). Thirteen communities along the Lean River installed flood-alert systems, and their experience was applied two years later to nineteen communities in the La Masica valley.

The project brought together seventy-four professionals and community-development practitioners civil engineers, emergency management specialists, local craftsmen, community organizers, Red Cross volunteers, radio-communications experts, leaders from education and health, and representatives front the municipalities responsible for local emergency management. They designed and tested the overall structure of the flood-alert and vulnerability-reduction program...