"Water, water, everywhere, but not a drop to drink"

Dear Ms. Barrett:

To answer your question about the drinking water quality on Santa Cruz, I found this information at http://web.mit.edu/12.000/www/m2008/teams/lasiguanas/Water_Management.html

Unlike some of the other Galapagos Islands, Santa Cruz does have fresh water.  Santa Cruz's fresh water is pumped from 25 meters underground by 7 electric pumps.  These pumps don't function in coordination with each other which causes inconsistent flow rates.  Sea water usually mixes in with the fresh water being pumped up.  This causes the chlorine to be too high in the water to drink.  Also about half the water is lost because of leaky pipes.

In San Cristobal there are also water leakage problems in the pipes and fresh water shortages. In Isabela there are pipe contamination problems.

I hope this answers your question.

Sincerely,
Daniel pd. 1

Daniel,
Thanks for the information about the drinking water on the islands. Between the salt infiltration and the waste contamination, the people of the Galapagos Islands have a huge enviromental problem of their hands.