San José, Costa Rica, March 22^nd 2021 (IUCN). On this World Water Day, under the motto “Valuing Water”, IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature) presents the Spanish version of one of the documents that make up the series of WANI toolkit (IUCN Water and Nature Initiative), which promotes effective water management to support the health of ecosystems and communities.

ACUÍFEROS, gestión sostenible de las aguas subterráneas, is a publication that highlights the importance of groundwater in social and economic development, which represents a source of great importance for the Mesoamerican region, where an estimated 65% of the region’s population depends on aquifers to gain access to water. This data reveals the great need for effective management of groundwater and thus avoid the problems associated with inadequate regulations that leads to overexploitation, pollution and unsustainable use of the resource.

The translation and edition of this document was possible thanks to the support of the Water Security Program of the Metropolitan Region of Guatemala – PROSEHIGUA and the BRIDGE programme: Building River Dialogue and Governance respectively. Both initiatives - implemented by IUCN - seek to build technical capacities of different stakeholders involved in the sustainable management of water resources in the region, with special emphasis on groundwater. On one hand, in Guatemala the technical staff of the local governments of the metropolitan area of Guatemala City will strengthened their knowledge; while in the rest of the region work will be done with stakeholders linked to the promotion of water governance in Central America.

“As Spanish Cooperation, we recognize the value of the production and dissemination of specialized knowledge on water management for the protection of life.  The document presented offers very valuable information on aquifers, their relevance and strategies for a sustainable management of this natural asset and contributes to the objectives of initiatives such as the IUCN and Municipality of Guatemala Water Security Program for the Metropolitan Region of Guatemala, PROSEHIGUA with the AECID support and for any organization committed to future water security.  This show we continue towards the achievement of the SDG6, Clean Water and Sanitation”, said Miguel González Gullón, General Coordinator of the Spanish Cooperation in Guatemala.

The value of groundwater

A first step to recognize the value of groundwater as an important, finite, valuable, and vulnerable resource, and to acknowledge the activities its different uses in productive activities, health and the environment.

Groundwater is the most abundant source of fresh water on Earth, supplying almost 50% of the world's drinking water and 43% of all water used for irrigation in agriculture. Changes in the availability and quality of groundwater have an impact on human health, livelihoods, food security and the economic development of nations.

As global groundwater extraction has tripled in the last 50 years, groundwater levels have decreased significantly in major aquifers, thus reducing stream flow and causing degradation of wetland and riverside ecosystems. The long-term viability of the regions’ economies that depend on the use of aquifers is under threat, thus generating long-term risks to global food security. Overexploitation of groundwater and its contamination threatens drinking water supply of hundreds of millions of people.

For example, Guatemala City where, accelerated urban growth, associated to a population growth in a range of 2,5 to 3,2%, makes it currently the largest city in Central America and one of the twenty largest in Latin America, which has brought with it a series of demands for services and infrastructure and mainly an increase in drinking water consumption.

Guatemala City concentrates seven municipalities on the city valley, and it is known as the centre of all economic activity in the country and receives every day around 1,5 to 2 million people who demand water supply and basic sanitation services. In the beginning, the demand for water supply in Guatemala City was satisfied by taking water from local springs located close to the city, later, due to the growing demand it was resorted to bringing flows form more distant areas located about 50 kilometres from the city. 

To satisfy the water needs derived from the population increase, numerous individuals, condominiums and industries, have resorted to increasingly to deep drilling to captures groundwater from an aquifer on with there is no management, or any type monitoring extractions.

The aquifer presents evidence of being exploited above its average recharge rate for several decades, since there are trends in drop of piezometric levels, as well as anthropic pollution.  Herrera and Orozco (2010)[1], presents the variation of the static groundwater levels from 1976 to 1996, where the groundwater level of four dug wells located at south of the Guatemala Valley, experienced a drop of 9 m, or 0,45 m per year.

The situation of water insecurity detected in the region, coupled with the lack of standards and regulations related to a reasonable and sustainable use of water resources, at both local and central levels through a “Water Law” or an institution in charge of ensuring the integrated management of water resources, constitutes the identified and addressed issue through the intervention of the PROSEHIGUA, which aims to contribute to reducing it or, in another way, to achieveing a Water Securirty Strategy for the metropolitan region of Guatemala.

As this article has shown, the inadequate management and practices of water resources puts at risk many benefits for human well-being, societies, sustainable development and the conservation of biodiversity. Groundwater management works in conjunction with ecosystem management to secure the continued availability of this resource, as well as the benefits of ecosystems that depend on groundwater.

Coordination and joint work are required with the actors associated with the management of surface water, where local users of groundwater, technical specialists and decision-makers work together for the joint use of the resource. Each plays a role, whether at the local, basin, national or international level, to implement collaborative, participatory and multi-stakeholder strategies to catalyse sustainable groundwater management.

ACUÍFEROS integrates the issues related to groundwater in terms of challenges and risks to which they are subject and allows an understanding - at a general level - of the operation of groundwater systems. It also shares worldwide experiences in policies, laws and institutions for their effective governance, giving the opportunity to be aware of economic instruments and principles for the sustainable management of this resource, as well as experiences in social organization for its management.

Therefore, ACUÍFEROS has been published and is available for use on the IUCN portal and can be used as a reference for Spanish-speaking stakeholders. You can also find the complete WANI series in Spanish here.

About IUCN

IUCN is a membership Union composed of both government and civil society organisations. It harnesses the experience, resources and reach of its more than 1,400 Member organisations and the input of more than 15,000 experts. IUCN is the global authority on the status of the natural world and the measures needed to safeguard it.

PROSEHIGUA

IUCN, in association with the Municipality of Guatemala, the Mancomunidad Gran Ciudad del Sur - MGCS, Grupo Tragsa and the Geological and Mining Institute of Spain - IGME, implements PROSEHIGUA with the support of the Cooperation Fund for Water and Basic Sanitation –FCAS- from the Spanish Cooperation Agency. The objective of PROSEHIGUA is to promote the establishment of a water security strategy for the Metropolitan area of ​​Guatemala City and Municipalities of the Mancomunidad Gran Ciudad del Sur, compatible with a sustainable exploitation of the aquifer. This responds to the need and the augmenting demand for water by a growing urban population in Guatemala City. The intervention zone covers part of the territory of the Guatemala Department, mainly the Guatemalan Metropolitan Region, and part of the area of ​​influence that it has over the sub-basins of Xayá and Pixcayá in the Chimaltenango Department.

BRIDGE Programme

The BRIDGE programme is a global initiative that, thanks to the support of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), promotes good governance in transboundary basins in three regions of the planet: Latin America, Asia and Africa. The project is implemented by the Global Water Program and the IUCN Environmental Law Centre, in coordination with the regional offices. One of the key elements of good governance is the strengthening of capacities for the empowerment of the different stakeholders involved in the management of water resources. In this context, BRIDGE has managed to establish alliances with regional actors to promote water governance in Central America.

BRIDGE promotes governance structures for transboundary water dialogues between countries to enhance cooperation. In Central America, actions have been carried out in different transboundary basins in the region. The fourth stage of the BRIDGE project runs from the 2019-2021 period. In Mesoamerica, work is carried out in two basins, the Goascorán River basin, shared between Honduras and El Salvador, and the Sixaola River basin, shared between Costa Rica and Panama.