75.532 With Basic
Services Like
Electricity, Water And
Phones. Report Indicates
According to the latest
report "Estado de la
nación" some 50.000 in
Costa Rica still live
without electricity and
still using wood burning
stoves to cook.
However, the Instituto
Costarricense de
Electricidad (ICE)
prefers to say that only
2% of the country -
1.022 square kilometres
- representing 1.603
points that does not
have electrical service.
Each point on the map,
according to ICE,
represents one customer
or a village of 15
people or less,
explained Luis Pacheco,
a manager for ICE.
The residents of San
Joaquín de Dota, only 90
minutes from San José,
is one of those points
that has yet to see
electricity. street
lighting was introduced
in San José some 124
years ago, however, it
has yet to make it the
78 kilometre distance
that separates San José
with San Joaquín de Dota,
a mountainous coffee
area of Los Santos.
ICE says that coverage
depends on a number of
factors, including the
location of the village
and the finances of ICE
to install the service,
which it says costs some
¢1 million colones for
each kilometre,
depending on the
terrain.
In addition to the
communities without
electrical power, the
report indicates that
there 1.095 communities
without telephone
service, also the
responsibility of ICE.
The report indicates
that 397 or 36% of the
communities without
telephone service are in
the Puntarenas province
and another 312 (28%) in
Guanacaste, two
provinces that have seen
tremendous growth in
development in the last
several years.
In the other Costa Rica
that is not promoted in
an travel guide or
internet website, there
are a total 75.532
people without basic
services that also
include running water.
In places like Isla
Chica de los Chiles, 123
kilometres north of
Cuidad Quesada (San
Carlos) there are
communities that do not
and will probably never
have runnig water in
their homes. Families
living in the remote
communities have to get
their drinking water
from nearby wells and
use the river for
bathing.
According to the
Acueductos y
Alcantarillados (AyA) -
the state owned water
and sewer utility - they
say that they cannot
build water pipes in
areas with such a small
population as they can
never cover their costs.
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