By Wendy Anders

Last week, the Public Services Regulatory Agency (Aresep) held a public hearing on the proposed 7.25 MW San Rafael Hydroelectric Project. An estimated 400 local residents filled the communal hall of San Pedro, Perez Zeledon in southern Costa Rica to protest the project, reported Costa Rica’s TV Sur.

A local group called the San Rafael River Defense Commission presented 800 written motions in opposition to the project at the hearing, and 15 verbal testimonies against the hydroelectric dam were heard. Two testimonies were heard in favor of the private project promoted by the H. Solis construction company, said TV Sur. The River Defense Commission is part of the nationwide Movimiento Ríos Vivos, Living Rivers Movement, organising to protect the country’s waterways.

At the hearing, H. Solis showed a video with drawings that explained the benefits of the project, including the possibilities of employment, said TV Sur.

However, local citizens, who have been voicing concern over the project since its inception several years ago, expressed concerns over how the project would affect water for human consumption, and the potential negative effects of the dam on the community’s agricultural and recreational uses of the river.

Community Organizer Geovany Arias said to TV Sur that, “Developers have no sympathy in the community; more than 90 per cent of the population is against the hydroelectric project.”

The hydroelectric planners have renewed their efforts to move the project forward after a municipal ban of hydroelectric projects in the San Rafael River watershed was lifted in mid-June, said Informativo Voces Nuestras, a Costa Rican alternative news site.

Local residents have had concerns over the environmental feasibility of the hydroelectric project planned along the Zapotal fault. The fault triggered a huge landslide several years ago that caused the town of Zapotal to be entirely wiped out and its residents relocated, said Voces Nuestras.

This project is one of 16 hydro projects proposed in the Southern Zone that have failed to come to fruition due to local opposition in the cantons of Buenos Aires, Perez Zeledón and Coto Brus. H. Solís is linked to 10 of 16 of these hydroelectric projects, said Voces Nuestras.