The city of Guatemala is the central core of socio-economic activities of the country, and has a population of 2.1 million and an area of 1,100 km². This area can be divided into the Motagua River Basin (the Caribbean Sea side) and the Maria Linda River Basin (the Pacific side); both river basins suffers suffering from poor water environment. Untreated domestic, industrial and agricultural wastewater is almost freely discharged into the public water domains due to absence of appropriate legal controls, resulting in the water environment devastation. The Lake Amatitlan, which is a resort area for inhabitants of the Metropolitan Area is also being polluted by wastewater from the southern part of the Metropolitan area.

The Government of Guatemala has been making efforts to mitigate the above water environment problems. In 2000 the government established the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (MARN), which was given mandates to plan and execute policies concerning the water environment management. Especially; water Purification of Lake Amatitilan, and; conservation and improvement of Water Environment.

Unfortunately, since MARN is a young institution and lacks of capacity and technical know-how, its efficiency could not met its expectations.

The Japanese Government through JICA and after coordinating with the Guatemalan Government, decided to carryout this Project, selecting CTI as the consulting firm.

The Project has as the main goal to, improve public policy and regulations on water environment conservation in the metropolitan area will become effective. And this projects covers a wide area that includes 9 municipalities.

This project is still ongoing.