Salud Gives Manuel Antonio
Four Months For Clean Up
The ministerio de Salud (Health ministry) said yesterday the Parque
Nacional Manuel Antonio will not be closed and will be have four
months to clean up the fecal contamination of the area.
Teh ministra de Salud, Maria Luisa Avila, led the inspection of the
park, along with officials of the Ministerio de Ambiente, Energía y
Telecomunicaciones (Minaet - environment ministry), to see the
progress of the clean up process.
Avila said that park officials had removed the debris from the park
and installed a number of portable toilets for visitors and park
workers to use and explained their plan to demolish a number of
buildings totally out of date and the cause of much of the
contamination and an investment in treating sewage.
The ministor de Turismo, Carlos Ricardo Benavides, said the
Instituto Costarricense de Turismo (ICT) will invest ¢120 million
colones in providing portable toilets and treating sewage water.
The Minaet now has four months to comply fully with the Salud order
or face, again, a shutdown of the park.
The Manuel Antonio is the second most visited national park in the
country, second to the Poas volcano, and number one in generating
revenue for the national park system.
The ministerio de Salud also announced yesterday that starting in
April it will begin an inspection of all businesses and residences
in Manuel Antonio and Quepos to detect any sanitary problems that
could affect the health of the residents and visitors to the area.
However, the news of keeping the park open did not sit well with the
members of the Sindicato de Minaer union, who assure that the
situation at Manuel Antonio is serious and that the environment
ministry has not proposed any new economic alternative to solve the
problem and is conforming with the money given by the ICT, which has
not responsibility in the problem.
Roberto Molina, head of the union, said that he will be asking the
Minaet ministry that 50% of the park revenue be used for
maintenance, operation and conservation programs at the park.
Currenlty, all the revenue generated by the national parks are
pooled.
"If the ministry does not respond will be presenting a recurso de
amparo (write) against the ministra (Avila)", said Molina. |
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