Inspectors from the Ministry of the Environment (Spanish acronym: MINAE) recently inspected an improvised dam erected by a sugar cane processor in Guanacaste. Municipal council members from Carrillo accompanied the MINAE inspectors in the latest dispute over water in the driest, yet most lucrative, region of Costa Rica.

Complaints about the dam and its alleged impact on the current of the Tempisque River started just as soon as the rains subsided at the end of the green season, a time when illegal dredging and makeshift dams tend to go up in Costa Rica. The furtive dredgers and builders take advantage of the abundance of rainfall since it conceals their clandestine operations, which become apparent once it stops raining and river levels fail to return to normality.

According to the complaints investigated by MINAE, the sugar cane processing plant that allegedly built the dam was not able to get a municipal permit from Carrillo and went the roundabout and malicious way to Liberia to get the coveted permit; alas, the dam is located within the Carrillo municipal limits.

Those now affected by the dam and its subsequent and supposed diversion of water include sand dredgers, neighbors, farmers, and even the 363 hectares of the Zapandi wetland refuge. The communities most affected by the ongoing state of affairs include Filadelfia and Guardia de Liberia. The diverted water is being used to irrigate the cane fields of CATSA, a local giant of sugar production.

Water shortages and conflicts are threatening to take away the gleam of Guanacaste as Costa Rica’s most promising region for tourism and luxury real estate development. This delicate issue has been closely followed by the Costa Rica Star; at one point only residential water shortages were reported, but the situation is now escalating into possible crop losses and direct intervention to ensure that equitable access to water is possible in Guanacaste.

Source: El Pais