Training and Development for the Integrated Management of the Water Resources in the West of Guatemala

This project defines strategies for financial sustainability, professionalization and upgrading of its teaching staff and technical teams so as to be able to offer training and quality improvement in the area of the environment and integrated water management to secondary school students, municipal staff and authorities and institutional technicians in the highlands in the West of Guatemala (Quetzaltenango, Sololá, San Marcos and Totonicapán). Although still in its initial phases, the following achievements have already been met:

· The project partners have met with national and international institutions present such as the ministry of environment, UNICEF...etc)

· Preparations for the seminar on the sustainability of action on the management of water resources

· Sending of candidates to the capacity building programs in Delft, Cali and Ciudad de Guatemala and with the department of civil engineering from CUNOC

A sustainable water management system transcends technical aspects as it is also a political, social, cultural and economic challenge. Creating a national legislation and a regulating institution has not been different in Guatemala: it is observed that there is no common vision and plan for this purpose. The presence of several public sector organizations, NGO’s and private companies in the community level in Guatemala involved in the introduction of systems for drinking water supply, has led to isolated interventions using different approaches and methodologies; this scenario in turn leads to unsustainable solutions and waste of resources.

A need was felt for the implementation of technical programs in management of water resources at a local institution in different departments and training modules in specific subjects so that it complements the systematic description of experiences in the management of water resources at the local level, as well as the setting up of discussion groups dealing with the issue of water.

This project includes the creation of a postgraduate program in environment and integrated management of water resources and the modification of the curriculum of the department of civil engineering to include this theme in its program. Partners will network in order to share knowledge in terms of methodologies that could be replicated in different regions of Western Guatemala.

The project has started with an inception plan where it has refined its work plan with all partners.