PBI-Honduras accompanies ARCAH to Jiniguare and hears concerns about dam with financing from UK Finance
PBI-Honduras has posted:
“Yesterday we accompanied ARCAH [the Honduran Alternative for Community and Environmental Vindication] during a visit to the Jiniguare community in the municipality of Ojojona. ARCAH expressed their concerns about the impacts of the Jiniguare dam project in the community, since the construction of the dam would mean the displacement of the people living in the area, among other things. They also stressed the importance of respecting the open council where the community declared itself free of dam projects.”
The Jiniguare dam
El Heraldo has previously reported: “Jiniguare Dam will provide water to some 300 thousand residents of the capital.” This is the promise of Mayor Jorge Aldana of the Municipal Mayor’s Office of the Central District (AMDC) who was elected to represent the “Central District, capital of Honduras” in 2021.
In October 2024, Bnamericas reported: “A contract has been signed for construction of the long-awaited Jiniguare dam in Honduras and the works could begin in the coming months, local authorities announced.”
That article adds: “Financing will soon be secured and the project’s environmental studies are underway, according to Aldana. ‘We’re finalizing the environmental studies and the financing with UKF [UK Finance], which is the British banking association that will help us finance this project, with the joint guarantee of President Xiomara Castro’s government’, he was quoted as saying by daily El Heraldo. According to the paper, the construction contract has been signed with a Brazilian company, but it was not named.“
That same month, El Libertador also reported: “The contract for the design and construction of the Jiniguare dam has already been signed… For the execution of this project, progress is being made on environmental issues and the financing of English banks.”
Dams on the San José and Jacaleapa rivers
On December 8, 2022, PBI-Honduras also posted: “This week we accompanied ARCAH to the Public Ministry to file a complaint against the privatization of water and the construction of dams on the San José and Jacaleapa rivers, and the Jiniguare river, both in the department of Francisco Morazán.”
It has been reported that construction on the San José dam will be completed in mid-2025 and operational in 2026. In November 2024, it was reported that it has already reached 45% of construction.
La Tribuna has also noted the Quebramontes and Río del Hombre projects. In September 2024, Tiempo reported: “The Municipal Mayor’s Office of the Central District (AMDC) signed a letter of understanding with the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) for the construction of the Rio del Hombre dam, located in the Amarateca sector.”
International finance
La Tribuna also highlights “the contribution of multilateral organizations” that are “supporting the Municipal Mayor’s Office of the Central District (AMDC) in projects that will enhance the future of water” in Tegucigalpa including the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the World Bank, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI), and South Korea.
Accompaniment
The Honduran Alternative for Community and Environmental Vindication (ARCAH) is a space for community articulation and an anti-capitalist, anti-racist, anti-patriarchal, anti-colonialist and anti-classist social movement that seeks to defend territories and common goods from any project that threatens the peace and cosmovision of communities.
PBI-Honduras has been accompanying ARCAH since September 2022.
Further reading: PBI-Honduras accompanies ARCAH as it files a complaint against the privatization of water and the construction of dams (PBI-Canada, December 8, 2022).
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