The Costa Rica water infrastructure is about to improve. If you have ever spent any time in Guanacaste, Costa Rica or read about it, you may have heard of it’s water distribution issues. Well, in time that will all be over as the government of Costa Rica signed a $425 million loan agreement to end the water issues of Guanacaste.
Now having said this, the loan needs to be finally approved by the legislature in order to be utilized. The new President of Costa Rica, Don Carlos Alvarado, stated that this was the largest loan ever granted to Costa Rica from the Central American Bank for Economic Integration. The loan is to help develop the proposed “Agua para Guanacaste” project which is designed to deliver potable water to many areas of the Guanacaste province that do not have the infrastructure or really old and inadequate infrastructure.
This new project will be designed to supply potable water to the counties of Nicoya, Santa Cruz and Carrillo. All the towns of the Papagayo region are in the county of Carrillo.
What’s included in this major upgrade to the Costa Rica water system? The “Agua para Guanacaste” Project will entail a reservoir located on the Piedras River just east of the town of Filadelphia, the county seat of Carrillo ( for all the English majors that like to be critical of other’s writing, this is the correct spelling of the town!). The reservoir height is anticipated to be no more than 40 meters or 131 feet tall.
In the Playa Hermosa, Playa Panama and Playas del Coco area, we have been struggling with it for years. Not that there is a lack of water, which you read all over the place, but rather a lack of the infrastructure to deliver it and very poor management of the wells and water that supply the area. Heck, when a country gets as much rain as Costa Rica does, there should never be a shortage. Yes, there have been a few times I was without water, but only for a few hours. At most it was a half a day.
The good news is that the problems that were experienced in the past in the Papagayo region will be rectified shortly. Over a year and a half ago, the previous president, Luis Solis, declared a national emergency for the area and pushed forth the drilling of new wells and infrastructure.
Two new huge water tanks are already under construction: one in Playa Panama close to the development of Hacienda del Mar and the second on the right on top of the ridge east of Playa del Coco. All the main water lines have already been laid, new wells drilled, and old ones repaired. This process started over a year ago. Hopefully, within the next two months this expansion of the Costa Rica water system will be fully operational.
When someone tells you that Guanacaste has no water, tell them to take a swim in the pool or chill out with a tall glass of water!
