Work Improves Irrigation Services in Guanacaste

More than a thousand production families from the irrigation district of Arenal Tempisque, DRAT, located in Guanacaste now have a better system for the critic periods of drought that may occur in the next couple of months, thanks to the works done in the Corobici west canal, which were inaugurated this past Tuesday by the Vice President, Luis Liberman, along with the Minister of Agriculture, Gloria Abraham Peralta, and authorities of the National Groundwater, Irrigation and Drainage, SENARA entity responsible for the works.

"This new infrastructure will provide water during the periods that the ICE is not providing the required flow for irrigation, which is essential to ensure good service to users and avoid crop losses, especially in these times of climate change and because experts have warned of the presence of El Niño, which makes Guanacaste even more dry," said the Minister Abraham.

The works included construction of a dam and main channel, with an area of almost 3.7 kilometers and with a total cost of $697 million colones. The project allows injecting 5 cubic meters of water per second at the DRAT West Canal.

"This is a small work with a big impact. Works such as this allow the agricultural sector have a less uncertain variable: we will have water. The challenge now is to produce, with more added value than what the market requires," said Luis Liberman, Vice President of the Republic.

The DRAT is the largest irrigation project in the country, with more than 255 kilometers of canals, 251 kilometers of roads and 89 parallel drains. It gives irrigation services 29,000 hectares, benefiting approximately a thousand production families. To this date, the state has invested more than $ 60 million in the works of DRAT.

According to SENARA, the generated produced in DRAT increased during 2011 to over $152.2 million dollars, of which $54.4 million was related to rice, $45.5 million to cane, $7.3 million to pasture, and $45 million for aquaculture. The State has invested more than $60 million.

The district production currently amounts to 6% of total exports in the agriculture, livestock and aquaculture sector of the country during 2011, according to Foreign Trade Statistics.

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