The company and the Guatemalan government insisted that many of the villagers relocate in order for the construction to take place. Río Negro's residents did not agree to the demands for the construction of the dam. The conflicts of interest led to one of the largest cases of violence against innocent civilians by the Guatemalan military in the country's history.
The Chixoy river natural environment provides many challenges for those attempting to make a living. Specifically, the river makes it is necessary for villagers to purchase and maintain expensive motor boats. The water in the river is also polluted. The Guatemalan government has large scale projects to clean sewage from their water sources, but these projects are not always effective. The dry climate has also made agriculture much more difficult. To give you an indication as to how bad the problem of global warming is in this part of the world, many of the land plots on the mountains have turned light brown from drying up.
In order to combat the pollution to the water, some residents have set up nets to collect floating garbage such as plastic bottles. Dryness of the land continues to be a problem, but Guatemalans have been planting trees along the mountainsides in order to reverse the worst effects of climate change in ther area. One of the challenges of living on the mountains near the river Chixoy is that the terrain is difficult to traverse. One of the ways villagers have adapted to this challenge is by creating and maintaining accessible trails throughout the mountains.
