By Wendy Anders

In a recent interview with the regional newspaper, La Voz de Guanacaste, the head of Costa Rica’s Water and Sewerage Department (AyA), Yamileth Astorga, discussed the ongoing water crisis in Guanacaste.

Astorga insists that Guanacaste’s water problems are due to a lack of infrastructure and not a lack of water.

Guanacaste’s acquifers have “good water capacity,” she said, adding that her agency has seven large water projects in the works to meet the region’s water demand.

She debunked the idea that hotels and recreational projects hog all the region’s water, saying that farming utilizes up to 75 percent of water from the country’s acquifers, including those in Guanacaste.

The current canal irrigation system in Guanacastes is “the most inefficient technique that could be used.” said Astorga.

She explained that farms utilize Irrigation canals that pass in front of their fields. The gates open into the farm and the farms are charged by the farm’s area, not the volume of water consumed, said Astorga.

Senara (the National Groundwater, Irrigation and Drainage Service) has agreed with the country’s Public Services Regulatory Authority (Aresep) to change this billing method and to charge farms by the volume of water consumed to curb the use of water for irrigation.

Astorga went on to explain that there is water available for future large projects such as malls and condominiums in Liberia, but not in Cañas.

And she said that Tamarindo’s proposed mall, which is continuing despite the lack of availability of water, is part of the overexploitation of water in that area. “Many more buildings are allowed in Tamarindo without a corresponding supply of water,” explained Astorga.

“Part of what happened with coastal aquifers is that the state has no ability to control water because the law we have is from 1942, and does not contemplate water sources. It only views water as water, which is seen as a resource to be given based on existing output and needs. This has led to the depletion, and salination of coastal acquifers,” said Astorga.

Astorga explained that updates to the law have been under discussion for the past 15 years, and feels what is slowing down the process of the law’s approval is “ignorance … people making the decisions are ignorant on the issue. The don’t understand it.”

She was particularly concerned about recent changes and disagreements to the new law by the Union of Private Businesses (Uccaep) and the National Agriculteral Association, who previously supported the new law, including their opposition to multidisciplinary working groups to be used to manage water resources.

“If we have no control over what is extracted, we will continue to overstress acquifers and deplete our existing water resources,” said Astorga.