By Wendy Anders

Hotels in Guanacaste, Costa Rica’s northern Pacific province, report spending an average of US$120,000 per month to provide drinking water to their guests, reported CRHoy, a Costa Rican Spanish digital news media, earlier this month.

Business leaders, who say they will probably need to lay off workers to cut costs due to the additional water-related expenses, met with Water and Sewerage Institute (AyA) officials to discuss the urgency of the situation.

All hotels in the area are reporting drinking water shortages, said Priscila Solano, president of the Guanacaste Chamber of Tourism. And tourism provides income to more than 700 families in the region, she said to CRHoy.com, whose other employment options are severely limited in this rural area.

AyA executive president, Yamileth Astorga, said a desalination plant will begin operating in December, which will provide more drinking, and also irrigation water to the region, reported CRHoy.com. The AyA also has plans to build a new aqueduct in the region, said CRHoy.

While water shortages have a long history in the dry northern region, last year was more severe due to the El Niño atmospheric phenomenon, in which rains decreased in Guanacaste by 60 per cent, said CRHoy.com.

Meanwhile, the AyA executive said she is limited by the lack of a comprehensive water law in the country, and urged the country’s legislators to move forward on a pending bill, said CRHoy.com.