Mariano González Sáez participated on Wednesday, April 9 in the Water Forum: alliances for a sustainable future, organized by the Guatemalan-Mexican Industry Chamber of Industry (CAMEX), where he shared the success experience of the Canal de Isabel II, a public company in Spain that manages the integral water cycle in the Community of Madrid.
During his visit to Guatemala, he spoke with Free press about the importance of water resource and the challenges facing the country to achieve sustainable management and involve all sectors.
How to replicate in Guatemala the water management that has been achieved in the Canal de Isabel II, in Madrid, Spain?
Water problems are pasting from the history of humanity. The first civilizations settled on the margins of water resources, because water is life, it is health, it is well -being, it is economic growth. It can also be a source of conflicts and catastrophes, of economic crises, and is the most impacted resource by climate change.
Therefore, we must pay the attention that it deserves and place it in the political debate at the corresponding level, but not only to discuss and speak, but to act.
It is not easy to move the experience of the Isabel II channel here; It is good to know, but the reality of the channel, of water management in Madrid, is a product of 174 years of history. Water management is not done from one day to another: it requires scientific-technical rigor, political leadership, consensus search and the commitment of all.
How to promote public policies for adequate water management?
That demands political will, leadership, good planning, knowing what resource we count and priority uses, doing climatic projections for future uncertainties and having an adequate legal framework, although a law alone will not solve water problems.
That law has to be based on adequate planning, with technical knowledge, and have a road map drawn with investments: make infrastructure that avoids pollution in rivers, purification, supply to the population, supply guarantee; And the same the water that leaves the industries and the homes: it must be treated to reach the best conditions of the water, not to contaminate them.
In that management there must be a public-private investment?
In the model that we have in Isabel II channel for the provision of the urban water cycle, we store water in reservoirs, we drive it, purify it, we take it to the houses, to the industries; Then we channel the dirty waters to some treatment plants, there we treat it and end in the rivers.
That requires many investments that are for the benefit of all, which guarantee the safety and quality of the resource.
In the case of Spain, for being in the field of the European Union, the level of normative demand is very high. That also makes us ambitious in investments, because we want to be at the forefront.
Here – in Guatemala – investments would have to be made. Having a law, the appeal must be ordered, but does the government, municipalities, to make these investments and maintain them? Public-private collaboration seems essential to me.
A water law, with the scenario you have in Guatemala, would demand to arrange with the industrial and private sector. Here is a powerful industrial sector, which contributes to the gross domestic product of the country, which cannot be oblivious to a water regulation. You can’t cut the tap; We will have to order it, and that can only be achieved from the collaboration and understanding of all parties.
In Guatemala what would be the main challenges to preserve the environment?
Beyond territorial, physical or geographical singularities, environmental problems do not differ so much between countries.
In the background, the problems are the contamination of the water masses, the deterioration of the protected natural spaces, a poor quality of the water resource, the effects of climate change, which are global principles but that impact locally differently.
In the case of Guatemala, unlike what happens in Spain, it has a resource of water. It has rivers with flow volumes that we would like to have in Madrid, because the most characteristic river of the city has an average flow of three cubic meters per second; You have rivers that must be in three thousand, four thousand cubic meters per second. Therefore, there is the advantage of having the resource. The challenge is how to order it and manage it properly.
It is vital, but we do not give the importance of water. It is a issue of national security, efficiency, future guarantees for new generations.
Obviously, environmental challenges are to preserve that natural, ecosystem heritage, which also has an economic value. Well -managed natural capital is important.
What importance does communities involve involving communities in the management of natural resources?
It is important, since they have surely contributed to maintaining them and, therefore, they must be heard; What does not mean doing what people or groups determine, but participation is always good, it helps to approximate positions. The indigenous municipalities and communities that are in protected spaces have to have a voice and must incorporate their opinion into the participatory process of a better management that contributes to the general interest.
But, the general interest who determines it? It should be determined by the government that is in each case, but not from the imposition, but from the rigor of participation, of scientific-technical knowledge and involvement of economic activity sectors that allow jobs and wealth in the country.
How to achieve sustainability in the issue of water and environment?
It takes time. You have to provide adequate legal and economic instruments. The environmental element, the water and energy resource must be valued as essential elements of the development model of a country, but not from fundamentalist dogmatisms, which are sometimes raised with ultra -ecological arguments that stop the economy. That can’t be.
We must have a lot of ability and intelligence to handle the situation for the sake of progress that must be common, but that requires time and determination, such as the analogy of the water drop, which is persistent and constant, but it is soft.
In that step to sustainability, where should we go?
Sustainability is only modulated from the environmental perspective, and this is important for the future Water Law or other environmental initiatives that are raised in Guatemala. Sustainability has three legs: social, environmental and economic, and we must seek balance between the three.
Governments govern to improve the quality of life of citizens, and, beyond theoretical discourse, demand concrete actions and determination.
If the industry contributes to creating jobs, improving the economy and positioning of Guatemala in the context of Central America or World, then welcome.
Guatemala is a wonderful country from the tourist point of view. There is a potential in the impressive tourism industry, but it has to be ordered; It cannot be an uncontrolled tourism, so that the fragility of natural spaces is not compromised and can be an important source of income and improvement of local communities that can live from tourism.
There the water plays an important role, because, as a tourist, I would like to come to a hotel that has water, or go to Lake Atitlán and that the waters are in a reasonable state. That is only achieved from the conviction of the importance of the resource and with the collaboration of all.
Each industrial sector will have its singularities and need to be heard, just like the indigenous communities or the mayors of the municipalities, and, among all, to look for that model that allows progress.
In Guatemala we still have no water law.
Guatemala is one of the few countries that does not have a water law. But I insist: only one law will not solve problems. If the law is bad, what will be achieved is worsen the situation.
How urgent is wastewater treatment, a topic that has not had advances in the country?
It is fundamental. The water has two faces. One: the part of the supply for consumption, either in homes or industrial or commercial activities.
And then, all the water that enters an industry, in a house, leaves, drives and ends in a river. It should be a refined river, with minimal quality standards, not an uncontrolled discharge, because, despite having sufficient rivers that help the dilution of that pollution, the deterioration of the environment has to do with the non -treatment of wastewater or the non -management of solid urban waste. Both have to go hand in hand, with adequate planning and adequate regulatory framework.