Sections:
Drought, mud slides and later harvests add to hardships in remote highlands
19 May 2008
Image courtesy of Christian Aid
Life has always been hard in the remote highlands of Guatemala but the impacts
of changing weather patterns are making things even harder. The Chorti, an
indigenous Mayan people, live in poor villages with few jobs, and many struggle
to grow enough to eat. The development figures in this area - for education,
health, economic situation and life expectancy - are the worst in the whole
country.
Changing weather patterns have meant that the communities, who used to sow in
May and harvest in September, now have to sow in June and harvest in October.
This has resulted in the annual "hunger season", when families have little or no
food, now lasting even longer.
And as well as holding up the sowing and harvesting cycle, more unpredictable
rainfall is making it harder to grow a good harvest. The mountains were once
covered in forest. But now large areas are laid bare as people have cut down the
trees for firewood or to make way for more land for farming. Fewer trees on the
hillsides not only means less rain, and more drought - but a rainy season marked
by mudslides which block roads, destroy homes and claim lives.
This story was provided by Christian Aid.
Links
