In 2019, the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources (MARN) and the Guatemalan Secretariat for Planning and Programming of the Presidency (SEGEPLAN), with the support of GWP Central America, brought together stakeholders from national and county government agencies, development partners, NGOs, civil society, academia, and the private sector to define a series of strategic actions for advancing on IWRM in Guatemala. The objective was to develop strategic institutional and governance actions to advance in IWRM implementation to contribute to the fulfilment of the objectives of national development policies on water, including SDG 6 and other water-related sustainable development goals.
The Action Plan was revised in 2020 and 2021 to reflect legal and institutional changes and was updated and officially approved by the Vice-Ministry of Water in June 2023.
The following action was defined as part of that process and identified as a priority action to be included in an action plan. The purpose of this action is to strengthen the Water Quality Laboratory as a branch of the MARN for monitoring water quality in the main water bodies and ensure the quality and reliability of its analyses through certification and appropriate accreditation. This is in support of programmes to monitor and improve water quality and quantity.
