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The World Food Programme's regional director will visit Honduras this week to meet with President Asfura and assess the impact of an El Niño-driven drought affecting 103 municipalities, particularly in the Dry Corridor, where the government has declared a water emergency.

Honduras's risk management agency forecasts the arrival of rainfall across the country starting September 5 after weeks of severe drought affecting more than 230 municipalities, as moisture from the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean moves in.

The Guacerique River, a major tributary supplying the Los Laureles Dam reservoir, has dramatically diminished due to severe drought, raising concerns about water availability for residents across the region.

A severe drought affecting 75 municipalities in Honduras is raising water costs, causing child hospitalizations from poor sanitation, endangering food security for 2.2 million people, and threatening to force schools into virtual education.

At least 80% of Honduras's municipalities are under some level of drought alert, with southern municipalities most severely affected, according to data analysis by Consulting HNL.

Geographer Carlos Héctor Sabillón warned that Honduras faces water shortages from decades of poor planning and urged the government to adopt a long-term national strategy to capture rainfall, reforest watersheds, and build storage infrastructure.

Engineer Dulio Medina cautioned that water access is worsening nationwide, particularly in Tegucigalpa and the southern region, where he says saltwater intrusion from the Pacific is contaminating wells and threatening agriculture and livestock, and urged the government to declare an emergency and deploy pumping systems to tap surface sources.

A tropical wave will bring rain to western Honduras on Tuesday, August 11, but forecasters say the precipitation will be insufficient to relieve the water emergency affecting Tegucigalpa and other regions.