Nearly half a million dollars will go into the first stage of post-Hurricane-Otto environmental clean-up, announced the Costa Rican President’s office this week. Work began this week in the Upala region.

The C253 million job of cleaning and channeling the Zapote River as it wends in and around the communities of Yolillal, San Isidro, San Judas, El Carmen and Upala center, is overseen by the Ministry of Public Works and Transportation’s water works department and Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE).

In recent weeks, the National Emergency Commission’s (CNE) Board of Directors has approved more than 80 projects to be undertaken in the hurricane affected area, most of them related to repairs to roads, bridges, sewers and fords, as well as cleaning and channeling rivers.

“The CNE is working closely with other institutions to ensure that all these projects begin to be implemented as soon as possible,” said Julisa Ulate, CNE executive director.

Before and after Hurricane Otto hit the country on the night of November 24, 2016, emergency plans went into effect. During the following months, various government agencies carried out laborious inventories of the destruction and existing needs, so that by March 1, 2017, the CNE had a comprehensive reconstruction plan which was approved by President of the Republic, Luis Guillermo Solís.

“The work on the Zapote River will last for about three months. It includes, in addition to the channeling, reinforcing the banks of two of the river’s branches, cleaning logs and debris left by the storm, and building an irrigation outlet,” said Ignacio Arguedas, ICE engineer in charge of the project.

Presidential Commissioner for Reconstruction Mariano Figueres said, “We have a long list of projects, which have already been defined, and with the help of the Emergency Commission, the Municipalities, the MOPT and the ICE, we hope to conclude many of them this year.”