Central America is running out of water and food as El Nino kills cattle and wipes out harvests

A punishing drought linked to El Nino is pushing communities across Central America deeper into hunger, wiping out crops, killing livestock and leaving families scrambling for increasingly scarce water, reported AFP.

Across the Central American Dry Corridor, which stretches through parts of Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Costa Rica, fields that should be thick with corn are lying bare. Livestock carcasses are scattered across parched farmland, while families are cutting back on meals as food prices climb.

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More than 10 million people live in the corridor, where 80% of small-scale producers are poor, according to United Nations figures.

For communities accustomed to bouts of extreme weather, the severity of this year's El Nino has still come as a shock. The weather pattern is expected to be the strongest since comparable records began four decades ago.

"We had never seen anything like this," 76-year-old Lidia Ochoa, a resident of San Lorenzo in southern Honduras, told AFP.

The impact is now being felt at the dinner table.

"Sometimes I break down in tears. Sometimes you eat, sometimes you don't," Ochoa said.

At this point in the agricultural calendar, Francisco Molina's plot in San Lorenzo should be covered in growing corn. Instead, the land is barren, with livestock carcasses decomposing in the intense heat nearby.

Water runs short

The crisis extends well beyond Honduras.

In neighbouring El Salvador, Maria de la Paz Portillo manages a water tank supplying the northeastern community of El Matazano, where temperatures have climbed to a record 42 degrees Celsius.

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"This is the first year that we've seen this shortage and this need for water," the 31-year-old told AFP.

The tank once supplied about 50 families while also providing water for a pond used to raise tilapia for food and sale. With water increasingly precious, the fish-farming operation has been abandoned so supplies can be reserved for more urgent needs.

"It's affecting us because... we're not eating tilapia, and also financially because it was a source of livelihood," said resident Maria del Carmen Portillo, 32.

El Nino occurs when surface waters in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean become unusually warm, disrupting winds and rainfall patterns and contributing to erratic weather around the world.

For farmers across the Dry Corridor, those disruptions are translating into failed harvests and shrinking food supplies.

Corn harvests under threat

In northern Guatemala, Indigenous leader Elvira Pasa fears entire corn crops could disappear in communities already struggling with serious levels of child malnutrition.

"All the corn harvests are going to be lost," Pasa said from a remote village in the municipality of Cunen.

Some villagers have already been forced to buy corn at prices around 50% above normal, he said.

Governments in the region have declared national emergencies, but authorities are facing accusations that affected communities have not received enough support. Many residents are instead relying on assistance from non-governmental organisations.

In Honduras, soaring food prices are compounding the damage caused by lost crops and income.

"We eat with just one tortilla and then we don't eat again because everything is outrageously expensive," Ochoa said.

The threat extends far beyond individual villages. As many as 16 million people across Latin America could face food shortages because of El Nino, Lena Savelli, regional director of the UN World Food Programme, told AFP.

The climate phenomenon is expected to peak towards the end of the year, although experts warn its consequences could continue well into 2027.

Livestock reduced to skin and bone

For cattle farmers in San Lorenzo, the drought has created another painful calculation: sell livestock now or risk watching the animals die.

Around 100 cows have died in the village in recent months. Skeletons now lie across the dried-out landscape, while surviving cattle have become increasingly thin and produce less milk.

Darwin Cruz has already sold two of his dairy cows since conditions worsened in June, while another has died. His three remaining cows are producing only about a quarter of their normal milk output.

For a small farmer whose wife and two daughters depend on that income, the decline has left few options.

If the rains do not return, Cruz said he may have little choice but to "sell my little cows."

Others are trying to adapt to a climate that is becoming increasingly difficult to predict.

In El Matazano, 53-year-old Vilma Ortiz has switched to crops that require less water. She is growing chilli peppers instead of her usual tomatoes, believing the peppers are "braver" when faced with drought.

But adaptation can only go so far when water, food and livelihoods are all under pressure.

In Guatemala, Pasa said the worsening conditions have left his community uncertain about how it will survive if the drought continues.

"The truth is, I'm starting to get scared because we don't know what we're going to live on," he said.

With inputs from AFP