Solutions to Guanacaste
Water Supply Needs
Offered
(Infocom) — On the
occasion of the 184th
anniversary of the
Annexation of the
Partido de Nicoya (today
Guanacaste) to Costa
Rica, which was
celebrated last July 25,
a series of proposals
were made to guarantee
the province will have
enough water to supply
its needs.
“While I am President,
each drop of water will
continue to be Costa
Rican-owned, and I will
not rest until every
Costa Rican has access
to drinking water.
Guanacaste will no
longer be a thirsty
province,” President
Oscar Arias told
Guanacastecans.
Such words were spoken
by Arias during the
President’s Cabinet
meeting, which was held
in Nicoya as part of a
tradition that
celebrate’s the
province’s decision to
become a part of Costa
Rica in 1824. At that
meeting, an action plan
for the province was
unveiled, which calls
for more infrastructure
and services with the
goal of improving the
lives of all
Guanacastecans.
“Today we unveil the
Guanacaste Action Plan
which, among other
things, finally
addresses the supply of
water resources to those
who live in this
province,” Arias
explained. “Guanacaste
will no longer be a
thirsty province, as
such thirst represents
an unanswered question
before an incapable
government, and mine is
not that government.”
Meanwhile, Environment
and Energy Minister
Roberto Dobles provided
details about the
Drinking Water Supply
Project for the Western
Bank of the Tempisque
River, which feeds off
the Arenal Reservoir
system and will
represent an investment
of $28 million. Its goal
is to provide one cubic
meter of water per
second, bringing potable
water from the
Arenal-DRAT-Tempisque
system to the western
bank of the Tempisque
River, which drains most
of Guanacaste.
Specifically, this
project consists in
taking water from the
Corobici River and use
the Western Canal of the
river to take advantage
of gravity and bring
water to the westernmost
possible point — through
the utilization of
irrigation canals that
go through the El Pelon
de la Bajura and CATSA
rice and sugarcane
plantations. From there
on, the Costa Rican
Water and Sewer
Institute (AyA) would
take care of channeling
the water to a treatment
plant to be located on
the western bank of the
Tempisque.
This initiative — which
is expected to be ready
in 2010 — would benefit
Guanacaste communities
in most need of water
(particularly on the
drier Pacific coast).
Additionally, another
agreement between AyA
and the National
University (UNA) was
signed that day to carry
out hydro-geological and
population surveys on
Guanacaste’s coastal
region — as a way to
pinpoint the best
places, the most
adequate technology and
the financial
requirements of
desalinization
structures capable of
producing potable water
out of sea water that
would be technically,
socially and
environmentally
feasible. In this way,
the vast water resources
of the Pacific Ocean
could also be tapped to
solve the province’s
current and expected
water shortages.
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