Despite the fact that an unconstitutionality has halted the Regulation on Discharge and Reuse of Waste Water and Sludge Disposal, which stipulates, among other obligations, the construction of municipal treatment plants, more than 240 municipalities have already complied with the technical studies, according to data from the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (MARN).
The municipalities were supposed to have the technical studies in May of this year, but the Constitutional Court (CC) granted the National Association of Municipalities (Anam) an unconstitutionality that was presented at the end of May and resolved in June. With this decision, compliance with the regulation, which has been postponed since its approval in 2006, was once again suspended.
El Progreso, Izabal, Quiché and Zacapa have completed these studies, while Totonicapán, Escuintla and Jalapa have less than 25 percent progress in this area.
MARN data up to May indicate that 247 municipalities have carried out the respective studies; however, the database clarifies that the expiration date is not taken into account.
According to the regulations, the studies must be updated every five years and the municipalities are obliged to review their validity in order to update them. The price of the studies ranges between Q75 thousand and Q85 thousand, but depends on the number of discharges and treatment plants in operation.
Without agreements
The regulation has been the cause of disputes between Anam and the Executive, because the president of the Association, Sebastián Siero, has mentioned that the municipalities do not have the financial capacity to apply it and do not receive sufficient support from the central government. The Minister of Environment, Patricia Orantes, has assured that they have had approaches with different mayors directly, not through Anam.
Some municipalities do have treatment plants, such as San Manuel Chaparrón, Jalapa, which has one in the urban area, but the mayor, Ricardo Sandoval, admits that it was not planned in the best way, so it does not cover the respective flow.
“This has an impact, because today we are looking for solutions and improvements for these plants, but the budgets are very high and until now we would have to make a loan with banking institutions or with the Municipal Development Institute (Infom) for the development of these projects,” said the mayor.
The mayor of San Cristóbal Totonicapán, Carlos Say, said that they have some plants, but they need more. One of the problems in the town is that there are liquids coming from San Francisco El Alto, Totonicapán, where several dry cleaning companies operate.
In addition, several municipalities do not have treatment plants or sewage systems, such as some of those located on the shores of Lake Atitlán.
Recently, the Authority for the Sustainable Management of the Lake Atitlán Basin and its Environment (Amsclae) reported that the department is working with three municipalities on wastewater treatment.
On the other hand, the Motagua River Basin Association is seeking funding to address the deterioration of its waters.
“We are working to find a way to manage resources and be able to reverse the serious deterioration of the Motagua River,” said Guadalupe Reyes, mayor of Palencia, a municipality in Guatemala.
Loans
Some municipal leaders are turning to the Municipal Development Institute (Infom) in search of funding, like Sandoval, who says they are also studying other sources.
From 2017 to date, Infom records five loans from different municipal departments for water treatment projects.
Masagua, Escuintla, requested Q4 million in 2017 for water treatment; Conguaco, Jutiapa, requested Q2 million 400 thousand in 2018, for the treatment plant; San Manuel Chaparrón, Jalapa, requested a loan of Q5 million in 2018 for the solid waste and water treatment plants.
In 2020, El Jícaro, El Progreso, obtained a loan for Q15 million for different projects, including the wastewater treatment plant; Guazacapán, Santa Rosa, requested Q2 million 300 thousand, with the aim of building the treatment plant in 2020, and a year later the mayor’s office of the Chiquimula capital requested Q9 million 500 thousand for the purchase of the land where the wastewater system would be built.
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