La Cueva reservoir project in Guanacaste declared of public interest

Aug 19, 2008

SAN JOSE, COSTA RICA (Infocom – The Guanacaste Journal)

The feasibility studies and possible construction of the La Cueva reservoir in Guanacaste have recently been declared of “public interest” and of “national convenience” by the government. The reservoir would be built by the National Irrigation and Subterranean Waters Service (SENARA) and would be located on the lower Tempisque River, below the area where the Ahogados and Tempisquito rivers come together, in the canton of Carrillo. 

By being declared a public-interest project, all financing processes necessary to carry out the reservoir’s pre-feasibility and feasibility studies, as well as its construction by SENARA, will be given priority by state institutions such as the Treasury Ministry, the Planning and Economic Policy Ministry, the Costa Rican Central Bank, the Budget Authority and the National Treasury. Additionally, all paperwork and requests that SENARA must conduct to implement the project, plus all works associated with it, will be handled in a quicker manner by all public entities involved. 

The decision was based on the fact that the province of Guanacaste is one of the driest regions in the country, with an annual average rainfall of 1,729 mm, compared to the national average of 3,272 mm. And even though the province is crisscrossed by rivers, the amount of water carried by its river network — which is dominated by the Tempisque River and its tributaries, such as Bebedero River — significantly decreases during the dry season, which lasts five to six months. The region’s most important water sources are the Tempisque Watershed, underground aquifers and, since 1979, the Arenal Reservoir. 

The project was announced on July 25, when the Costa Rican Water and Sewer Institute (AyA) unveiled in Nicoya the Plan for Water Supply in Guanacaste 

AyA Executive President Ricardo Sancho said the project would take water from the Corobici River and use the Western Canal of the river to take advantage of gravity and bring water to the westernmost possible point — through the utilization of irrigation canals that go through the El Pelon de la Bajura and CATSA rice and sugarcane plantations. From there on, the Costa Rican Water and Sewer Institute (AyA) would take care of channeling the water to a treatment plant to be located on the western bank of the Tempisque. 

The project’s main goal is to provide one cubic meter of water per second to meet the increasing water needs of Guanacastecans and the province’s booming tourism industry, bringing potable water from the Arenal-DRAT-Tempisque system to the western bank of the Tempisque River. Also planned is improving the current infrastructure of DRAT’s Western Canal and build new infrastructure to transport and treat the water on the western bank of the Tempisque. 

This project is considered crucial to guarantee the availability of water in Guanacaste, especially on the drier coastal regions. Currently, and based on the water supply and demand patterns seen in the region, there are periods of the year when there just isn’t enough water to meet demand. The new reservoir would provide up to five cubic meters of water per second during the rainy season, when at times the water-distribution systems experiences issues. That’s not the case in the summer, when the Arenal Reservoir’s capacity is sufficient to meet current demand. 

Sancho said that total investment in this project will reach $28 million. Also involved in this initiative are the Ministry of the Environment and Energy (MINAE), SENARA, the Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE), the Ministry of Agriculture and the state-owned Banco Nacional.