Management of Urban Wastewater on One of the Galapagos Islands

Abstract

Since 1984, the Galapagos Islands have been included in the program UNESCO-MAB (Man and Biosphere Programme) due to the increasing need to safeguard their outstanding natural ecosystems and promote economic progress based on principles of sustainable development and environmentally friendly technologies. The Ecuadorian government, also by special laws, has legislated in favor of the environmental protection of the archipelago, with the intention to control the flow of migrants from the continent to the islands. Today, with the further problems created by the massive influx of tourists, is it necessary to establish planned areas of urban expansion that are already equipped with a suitable system of collection and treatment of wastewater. This paper focuses on the city of Puerto Ayora, the main town of the island of Santa Cruz, where increasing human pressure has led to, among various other consequences, an increase in water demand, which has highlighted the inadequacy of the current wastewater treatment system, based primarily on single-family septic tanks without additional depuration. Among the various actions proposed to solve the increasing health and environmental hazards, caused by the partially treated wastewater, a centralized sewer system for the drainage and the depuration of the wastewater produced by the users connected to the network has been proposed in order to serve the community of Puerto Ayora. This project is currently experiencing a slow implementation process due to technical difficulties. Our intention is to propose a different wastewater management system, which is modular, easily replicable and which requires low maintenance. A flexible and easily manageable system, such as that proposed, could be implemented in other contexts such as, for example, in developing countries. In this specific case, the main purpose of this study is to investigate how to ensure a healthy environment for tourists and residents, without neglecting our duty to respect the ecosystems of this extraordinary island, by defining a model of wastewater management which should be economically and technologically sustainable in this particular context. In fact, the soil, formed by lava rock does not allow for very deep excavations and being so far away from the mainland means that technologies that are easily maintainable on site must be deployed. The study was carried out according to the Millennium Development Goals, Ecuadorian legislation, the suggestions of the Pan American Health Organization, relevant scientific literature and some data collected from site surveys.

Urban Land Cover Change in Ecologically Fragile Environments: The Case of the Galapagos Islands

“…It is expected that the increase of impervious surfaces will have profound implications for the human-ecological systems of Galapagos [50], and specifically, related to growth of urban surfaces in the Galapagos, can have implications to wildlife health [51] and endemic vegetation [52], human health and infrastructure [53,54], and in the relationship between wildlife and humans (e.g., [55]). Despite that there are new efforts to understand how population growth affects public services in the Galapagos [54,56] and the contribution to the invasion of alien species [57], there is not enough research to assess the impact of urban infrastructure growth in endemic species and how urban ecology programs can be built to ameliorate potential impacts.…”

“…Despite that there are new efforts to understand how population growth affects public services in the Galapagos [54,56] and the contribution to the invasion of alien species [57], there is not enough research to assess the impact of urban infrastructure growth in endemic species and how urban ecology programs can be built to ameliorate potential impacts. This is the first study to quantify the increase of impervious surfaces in the Galapagos Islands and it should be a priority, in terms of research.…”

Corrigendum to: A collaboratively derived environmental research agenda for Galápagos

“…Floreana depends on small-outflow springs for its water, which have become depleted (d 'Ozouville 2007). Irrigation water is in short supply for farmers on the islands (d 'Ozouville 2007) and current wastewater treatment systems are considered environmentally hazardous (Ragazzi et al 2016). Predicted increases in water use and pollution by humans are also likely to have implications on the wildlife and ecosystems present on the islands.…”

Towards Comprehensive Policy Integration for the Sustainability of Small Islands: A Landscape-Scale Planning Approach for the Galápagos Islands

“…Moreover, in contrast with the large scholarly attention given to the ecological and biological aspects of Galápagos, literature addressing socio-ecological and policy issues in this archipelago is relatively scarce. There is a small number of studies that focus on very specific issues, such as the governance/management of the Galápagos Marine Reserve [53][54][55], environmental conservation [53,56,57], waste management [57,58], water supply [59,60], tourism [61,62], fishing [63], and socio-ecological interactions [64][65][66][67]. Furthermore, these present a well-defined provincial scope.…”