⚡ DIRECT ACCESS TO OFFICIAL PORTAL
Wastewater Technical Study — MARN
→ Open SAGA (MARN online system) 📞 Call 2423-0500
What Agreement 236-2006 asks you to keep:
  • 📄 Technical Study endorsed by experts, updated every five years
  • 🧪 At least two samples a year, analysed at your cost, with five years of records
  • 🗺️ Plans with geographic coordinates of the site and of the sampling devices
  • 📋 Management and treatment plans for wastewater, reuse water and sludge
🆔 Checked: 7 November 2026 (Government Agreement 236-2006 as published by MARN)

Government Agreement 236-2006, the Regulation on Discharges and Reuse of Wastewater and Sludge Disposal, sets the criteria and requirements for discharging and reusing wastewater and for disposing of sludge. Its central obligation is a Technical Study (Estudio Técnico): anyone who generates or manages wastewater must prepare one, keep it available for MARN and update it every five years. For new projects, MARN rules on the discharge inside the resolution that approves the project’s environmental instrument.

Quick summary: Who: anyone who generates or manages special, ordinary or mixed wastewater (exempt: single-family homes and buildings with only ordinary wastewater and an authorized sewer connection). What: a Technical Study endorsed by experts, updated every 5 years. Monitoring: at least 2 samples a year at your cost, records kept 5 years. Limits: four stages for discharges to receiving bodies, with deadlines on 2 May 2011, 2015, 2020 and 2024. Sanctions: those of Decree 68-86.

As of 7 November 2026, based on Government Agreement 236-2006 as published by MARN (LexGlobal consolidated text uploaded in October 2026). In that text, Articles 2, 3 and 24 bis are marked as provisionally suspended under file (expediente) 3071-2024 of 30 May 2024.

What Agreement 236-2006 Requires

  • Technical Study (Art. 5): the individual or legal person, public or private, responsible for generating or managing special, ordinary or mixed wastewater, whether or not it is discharged to a receiving body or the public sewer, must prepare a study endorsed by experts that characterizes effluents, discharges, water for reuse and sludge.
  • Keep it on file (Art. 7): the study is kept available to MARN for follow-up and evaluation.
  • Link to the environmental instrument (Art. 8): when MARN approves an environmental evaluation instrument for a new generator, the resolution includes the ruling on the wastewater discharge. MARN verifies compliance using the instruments of the Regulation of Environmental Evaluation, Control and Follow-Up (Government Agreement 137-2016).
  • Permanent evaluation (Art. 9): MARN evaluates on an ongoing basis the management and treatment plans in the study.
  • Update every five years (Art. 10).

The RECSA tariff (Government Agreement 137-2016, Art. 72, numeral 1.10) lists Q100 for wastewater-discharge generators to receiving bodies, under the heading for registration requests in MARN’s lists.

Content of the Technical Study (Art. 6)

General information:

  • Name or company name, and the contact person before MARN.
  • Description of the nature of the activity and the hours of wastewater discharge.
  • Description of the wastewater treatment.
  • Characterization of the effluent (including settleable solids), of water for reuse and of sludge to be disposed of.
  • Characterization of the influent, where the special deduction of Art. 23 applies.
  • Identification of the receiving body or of the sewer where the water is discharged.
  • Parameters exempt from measurement and their justification.

Documents:

  • Location plan with geographic coordinates of the generator.
  • Location plan with geographic coordinates of the discharge and sampling devices.
  • Management plan for wastewater, water for reuse and sludge.
  • Wastewater treatment plan, if discharging to a receiving body or sewer.
  • Reports with the results of the characterizations.

Who Is Exempt (Art. 61)

Every single-family home and every public or private building that generates only ordinary wastewater and has an authorized connection to the public sewer or to a wastewater treatment service is exempt from preparing the Technical Study. The exemption does not apply to municipalities, to companies holding concessions for collecting, transporting, managing or disposing of wastewater, or to treatment plants of housing developments that are not connected to a municipal connection.

Sampling and Laboratories

  • Frequency (Art. 49): at least two samples a year of wastewater and of water for reuse, taken at the generator’s cost and analysed for the parameters in the Technical Study; the same minimum applies to sludge. Results are kept on record for five years and shown to MARN on request.
  • Composite samples (Art. 49):
Hours per day the activity dischargesMinimum simple samples per composite sampleMinimum interval between simple samples
Under 822 hours
8 to 1233 hours
Over 1243 hours
  • Flow (Art. 50): flow is measured with each simple sample to relate concentration and load.
  • Laboratories (Art. 54): state, university or legally constituted private laboratories, or the generator’s own laboratory, using the methods of the Comisión Guatemalteca de Normas or, failing that, recognized international methods. Reports are signed by an active member of the relevant professional college.

Discharge Limits

  • Receiving bodies (Art. 20): maximum permissible limits in four stages, with compliance deadlines of 2 May 2011, 2 May 2015, 2 May 2020 and 2 May 2024. The parameters include temperature, grease and oils, floating matter, suspended solids, total nitrogen, total phosphorus, pH, fecal coliforms, arsenic, cadmium, total cyanide, copper, hexavalent chromium, mercury, nickel, lead, zinc and color.
  • New generators (Art. 21): from the start of operations, a target of 3,000 kg/day of BOD with an associated quality parameter of 200 mg/L of BOD or less; with 100 mg/L or less they may discharge more than 3,000 kg/day.
  • Lakes, lagoons and reservoirs (Art. 62): 5 mg/L of total phosphorus at the end of the fourth stage, and from the start of operations for new generators.
  • Public sewer: separate limits apply to discharges to the public sewer (Art. 28 and 30).

Prohibitions and Sanctions

  • The regulation prohibits, among others, disposing of ordinary wastewater on the ground surface, in open channels or in the storm sewer (Art. 55), discharging untreated wastewater directly into the water table (Art. 56) and diluting wastewater with water from outside the generator: no target can be met by diluting (Art. 57).
  • Sanctions (Art. 60): infringements lead to the sanctions of the Law of Environmental Protection and Improvement (Decree 68-86), weighed by the severity of the environmental impact, the harm to the population, the conditions and recidivism. Omitting any requirement of the Technical Study leads MARN to open the administrative procedure under Articles 29, 31 and 34 of that law.

Sources and MARN contacts