The Las Vacas River is a river in Guatemala. It begins in the mountains on the eastern outskirts of Guatemala City and runs in a north-easterly direction to join the Motagua River where the departmental borders of El Progreso, Baja Verapaz and Guatemala converge. In its final kilometres, the river marks the limits between the departments of Guatemala and El Progreso.
| Las Vacas River | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Location | |
| Country | Guatemala |
| Physical characteristics | |
| Source | |
| • location | Guatemala City |
| • coordinates | 14°37′46″N 90°29′09″W / 14.629314°N 90.485888°W |
| • elevation | 1,800 m (5,900 ft) |
| Mouth | |
• location | Tributary of the Motagua River |
• coordinates | 14°52′26″N 90°23′42″W / 14.873961°N 90.394864°W |
• elevation | 400 m (1,300 ft) |
| Basin size | Gulf of Honduras |
The river is a major outlet for Guatemala City's raw sewage. Its highly polluted waters contain little aquatic life, and contribute to the pollution of the Motagua river and the marine ecosystem in the Gulf of Honduras.[1][2][3]
The environmental NGO The Ocean Cleanup installed an interceptor in 2023 to catch trash and prevent it from reaching the Gulf of Honduras and the Caribbean Sea.
The Las Vacas Hydroelectric Dam spans the river about 18 kilometres (11 mi) north-east of Guatemala City in the municipality of Chinautla, near the limits with San Pedro Ayampuc, where it converges with one of its tributaries, the Quezada river.
References
edit- ^ UNFCCC - CDM Executive Board (February 2005). "Guatemala: Las Vacas Hydroelectric Project" (pdf). United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Retrieved 2009-02-22.
- ^ "Water Resources Assessment of Guatemala" (PDF). US Army Corps of Engineers. June 2000. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-01-09. Retrieved 2009-02-22.
- ^ Thattai, Deeptha; Björn Kjerfve; W. D. Heyman (December 2003). "Hydrometeorology and Variability of Water Discharge and Sediment Load in the Inner Gulf of Honduras, Western Caribbean". Journal of Hydrometeorology. 4 (6): 985–995. Bibcode:2003JHyMe...4..985T. doi:10.1175/1525-7541(2003)004<0985:HAVOWD>2.0.CO;2.