Skip to main content

Alta Verapaz, Guatemala: Floods Operations Update (MDRGT012)

Countries
Guatemala
Sources
IFRC
Publication date
Origin
View original

A. SITUATION ANALYSIS
Description of the disaster

Since the beginning of September 2017, heavy rainfall affected Guatemala; despite the increased precipitation, soil saturation gradually decreased in some parts of the country. However, on 28 October 2018, Tropical Storm Selma dumped 250 mm of rainfall in Guatemala, increasing soil saturation and causing landslides and flooding, which severely affected the department of Alta Verapaz; October’s heavy rainfall wreaked havoc on towns such as La Franja del Polochic, Tactic and Cobán in the department of Alta Verapaz, leaving them cut off and in need of humanitarian assistance.

The increased water levels and the overflow of the Cahabón, Chixoy, Icbolay and Polochic Rivers affected 62 rural and urban communities in 8 municipalities.

Authorities ordered a departmental red alert to tend the needs of the local population, and the government opened 13 collective centres to house more than 1,000 people whose homes were directly affected.

Alta Verapaz is one of the largest maize producers in Guatemala, accounting for 10 per cent of the country’s total production; however, crops were lost to the flooding, putting small and mediumsized plot farmers’ food security at risk, according to information provided by the GRC’s branch in Cobán. Per official reports, 450 hectares owned by 1,097 families were affected in the municipalities of Chisec, Raxruhá and Panzós.

Many affected families acquired loans to purchase seeds and supplies needed for the second agricultural cycle, which began in November 2017; nonetheless, due to extensive crop losses, the affected families were unable to pay their debts, making their situation more precarious.

Moreover, the affected communities obtained their water from artesian wells, which were contaminated by mud and human and animal excrement by the flooding.