Challenges and opportunities of water quality monitoring and multi-stakeholder management in small islands: the case of Santa Cruz, Galapagos (Ecuador)

Sustainable water resources management roots in monitoring data reliability and a full engagement of all institutions involved in the water sector. When competences and interests are overlapping, however, coordination may be difficult, thus hampering cooperative actions. This is the case of Santa Cruz Island (Galapagos, Ecuador). A comprehensive assessment on water quality data (physico-chemical parameters, major elements, trace elements and coliforms) collected since 1985 revealed the need of optimizing monitoring efforts to fill knowledge gaps and to better target decision-making processes. A Water Committee (Comite de la gestion del Agua) was established to foster the coordinated action among stakeholders and to pave the way for joint monitoring in the island that can optimize the efforts for water quality assessment and protection. Shared procedures for data collection, sample analysis, evaluation and data assessment by an open-access geodatabase were proposed and implemented for the first time as a prototype in order to improve accountability and outreach towards civil society and water users. The overall results reveal the high potential of a well-structured and effective joint monitoring approach within a complex, multi-stakeholder framework.