The Choluteca River ( es, Río Grande o Choluteca) is a

river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of w ...

in southern Honduras. Its source is in the Department of

Francisco Morazán José Francisco Morazán Quesada (; born October 3, 1792 – September 15, 1842) was a Central American politician who served as president of the Federal Republic of Central America from 1830 to 1839. Before he was president of Central America h ...

, near Lepaterique (south-west Tegucigalpa), and from there it flows north through the city of

Tegucigalpa Tegucigalpa (, , ), formally Tegucigalpa, Municipality of the Central District ( es, Tegucigalpa, Municipio del Distrito Central or ''Tegucigalpa, M.D.C.''), and colloquially referred to as ''Tegus'' or ''Teguz'', is the capital and largest city ...

, then south through the department of El Paraíso, and the department and

city A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

of Choluteca. The mouth of the river—located among wetland—is near the coastal town of Cedeño, on the

Gulf of Fonseca The Gulf of Fonseca ( es, Golfo de Fonseca; ), a part of the Pacific Ocean, is a gulf in Central America, bordering El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua. History Fonseca Bay was discovered for Europeans in 1522 by Gil González de Ávil ...

. According to

FAO The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)french: link=no, Organisation des Nations unies pour l'alimentation et l'agriculture; it, Organizzazione delle Nazioni Unite per l'Alimentazione e l'Agricoltura is an intern ...

, the Choluteca River is long from source to mouth. Its hydrographic basin has an area of . It increases its volume between May and October, together with the rainy season. Its basin is affected by severe drought together with the

El Niño El Niño (; ; ) is the warm phase of the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and is associated with a band of warm ocean water that develops in the central and east-central equatorial Pacific (approximately between the International Date ...

phenomenon, and this is usually associated with severe bush fires. There are no

dams A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use ...

built along the main course of the river to leave it to its natural health. The flooding of this river was a major source of destruction during

Hurricane Mitch Hurricane Mitch is the second-deadliest Atlantic hurricane on record, causing over 11,000 fatalities in Central America in 1998, including approximately 7,000 in Honduras and 3,800 in Nicaragua due to cataclysmic flooding from the slow motion ...

in 1998. It washed out entire neighborhoods in Tegucigalpa, and eventually swelled to six times its normal size in Choluteca. There it destroyed neighborhoods and part of the commercial center. Further down it also devastated the tiny Morolica, destroying the entire hamlet, requiring the town to be rebuilt three miles upriver. The hurricane also rerouted the river, which was no longer flowing beneath the New Choluteca Bridge.

References

Choluteca {{Honduras-river-stub

See also

References