Battle over water in Guanacaste

The province Guanacaste in Costa Rica, has not only become a tourism oasis but also at the epicenter of intense disputes between communities, business people and government for the supply of drinking water.

The fear of losing water resources is the main trigger that has warmed the mood in several cantons in the Chorotega region, as is occurring in the Sardinal-El Coco-Ocotal aqueduct.

This project has fostered doubt among the residents of the area because they don’t know whether they will have water in the not too distant future with any amount of certainty.

“Even if they do not develop projects through private investment in the area there could still be a risk of not having water, but now with the aqueduct in Sardinal, this becomes a win-win situation for our community because we can be sure that we will have water in the future and also guarantees that we will maintain existing jobs through tourism in our area, where four out of ten families directly depend on this industry," said Carlos Chanto chairman of the Carrillo Civil Council and resident of the town.

The same problem has arisen among the real estate and tourism project developers in Guanacaste, who have had to finance the construction of the aqueduct at Sardinal to have the water resources.

Such is the case with companies like Pacífico Development Coco, Proyecto Inversión Ocotal Pío, S.A., Parque del Oro Treinta, S.A. and Coco Water S.A., among others, that are investing about $7 million in the projects.

Similarly, other Guanacaste companies say they are willing to invest in this type of project to secure the service.

“There is a gap of 30 years in infrastructure. However, the Urban Planning Law which dates from the 60's establishes mechanisms so that the state and employers can contribute to improvements in infrastructure,” said Pedro Munoz, a lawyer for the firm Arias & Muñoz.

The problem that this Costa Rican area is going through at this time has a common denominator called lack of planning, little information and lack of infrastructure to ensure the supply of this precious liquid in the long term.

This situation could have been generated due to the surprising real estate boom that was unleashed in the province. No one could have imagined in the 1960’s the amount of projects that now exceed the capacity for attention.

“You have to take drastic action because there are many needs in the province. The problem is that the current model of development and consumes too many resources and is in stark contrast with the reality of the area,” said Gabriela Cuadrado, a lawyer in the “Gestión Integral del Recurso Hídrico de la Alianza Nacional para la Defensa del Agua (Integrated Management of Water Resources of the National Alliance for the Defense of Water”) program.

For example, the area of new buildings for real estate and tourism projects in Guanacaste during this past year grew by 7.6%.

Similarly, the projected growth in the hotel sector considers that the number of rooms in 2010 will double and that there will be an associated increase in water consumption by over 200%. This would cause serious problems in the supply of water for human consumption in Guanacaste by 2015, as was noted in the State of the Nation address (2002) and thus the pressure on water resources.

The problem is that this real estate paradise sits in one of the driest regions of the country, especially in rainfall and available water sources.

In addition, this year’s State of the Nation address argues that “the reduced availability [of water] in coastal areas of Guanacaste stands out. TheTempisque and Bebedero river basins are highlighted as having the highest priority because they have problems of infrastructure, water availability and use conflicts.”

Additionally, the rain that bathes the Costa Rican province reaches nearly 2 thousand millimeters annually, on average, while the average on the rest of the country is 2,500 millimeters per year.

The cantons with greater inequality in access to drinking water are the cantons of Abangares, La Cruz, Hojancha, Bagaces, Nandayure, Nicoya and Tilarán.

So far, the problem has been solved with the use of underground water sources from the aquifers in the province, with the aggravating circumstance that the overuse of wells in some cases leads to salt extraction as has happened in Tamarindo and Flamingo. It is estimated that there are at least 90 wells operating in Tamarindo which were excavated secretly and in the province in general, the illegal wells could be double those authorized.

“The problem surrounding water resources is very serious in Guanacaste. Guanacaste’s aquifers are generally small, with very little capacity and easily polluted,” said Carlos Romero, hydro-geologist of the National System of Water, Irrigation and Drainage (SENARA by its initials in Sanish).

In fact, a report by the Comptroller General of the Republic of Costa Rica in December 2007 indicated the shortcomings of the National Institute of Aqueducts and Sewer System (AyA by its initials in Spanish) in the attention of the public sewers, comprehensive information on water availability and use distribution in the territory through regulatory plans in the region.

“This region needs aqueducts funded by private enterprise because it isn’t that there is no water in Guanacaste, but that projects such as this one are needed, through which the rich pay for the infrastructure for the poor, “ said Ricardo Sancho, executive president of Senara.

However, the system's mismanagement of water resources is recognized by some authorities, who admitted that the ungovernability and a lack of planning are primarily responsible for the situation that afflicts the province and the country at large.

“Guanacaste is certainly one of the driest regions of Costa Rica, but this does not mean that there are no alternatives to supply the present and future. What has happened is that a strategic plan and the necessary infrastructure to serve the community, industry and tourism were never created,” said Bernal Soto, general manager of Senara.

Against this background, representatives of the Ministry of Environment, Energy and Telecommunications (Minaet by its initials in Spanish) say they are taking notes in this area through the creation of a commission to do a diagnosis of the national water sector. Based on this study, a water policy and strategy in this area will also be developed.

Other factors also conspire against the limited water resources in Guanacaste which are the absence of regulatory plans, which has contributed to a disorderly construction in the province.

This is definitely a situation that TicosLand.com would qualify as serious because while it is true that Guanacaste is a province that has generated large numbers of jobs and development, this development is not so real because the investments are by private and foreign companies, so most of the money does not remain in the country. The staff that is recruited to work in those projects is not from the area for the most part because they do not have a second language as part of their résumé. If we add to this the fact that they may be depleting water resources, we will see that things are not so positive, hence the need for input from private enterprise to achieve an improvement in the area.