The lack of adequate water supply infrastructure in the province of Guanacaste is taking its toll in the tourism sector that has to take on additional costs to be able to run their operations normally.

The Guanacaste Tourism Board estimates that during the high season of 2015 and all through 2016, hotels and restaurants located in the counties of Carrillo and Santa Cruz had to incur additional expenses, in order to buy the needed liquid, that add to well over one million dollars .

Hotels in the areas of Tamarindo and Langosta were forced to pay tanker trucks in a daily basis to have water delivered, which obviously translates into high operation costs that cannot be recovered through their rates since they need to stay competitive.

“This problem is not new and has been affecting the Guanacaste zone for years, mainly because the Water and Sewerage Institute (AyA) never had a plan for the construction of new aqueducts or the improvement of the existing ones“, explained Alvaro Conejo, executive director of the Guanacaste Tourism Board.

At this point 100% of the hotels in these areas are suffering water supply problems, the Guanacaste Tourism Board is concerned about the effect this has had so far and will continue to have for the hotels, especially considering that at least 700 families in this region depend on the touristic activity.

Although the Government is working on several projects to bring a solution to this problem that also affects the communities, the bureaucracy and the fact that some people are opposing the projects have created setbacks in the conclusion of the same.

AyA has stated that they are working on creating several new aqueducts and different sanitation projects, among them: Cañas-Bebedero, Bagaces, Santa Cruz Coastal Zone, Coco-Ocotal and Papagayo Sur, that should benefit the different communities and the touristic sector.

The Sardinal project, for instance, includes four different initiatives: Sardinal-El Coco-Ocotal which is being financed by the AyA and the private sector and would benefit 34 thousand people; the Trancas-Panama-Hermosa project that is being financed by AyA, the Costa Rica Tourism Board and a private company; the Emergency Panama Beach project that is running entirely on AyA funding and the extension of the different sections of the Sardinal aqueduct also by AyA; this project will allow to bring water from the coastal aquifers of Sardinal and Trancas to the coastal communities, however there are several people opposing the project.

The Guanacaste Tourism Board urges President Luis Guillermo Solis to get involved in order to get matters moving faster, “the money is there, the designs exist, there is just no leadership to make things move forward”, said Pablo Abarca, president of the Guanacaste Tourism Board.

The water shortage in Guanacaste continues, affecting people in different communities, animals, the agro-industry, and of course the tourism industry.

The following video was posted by local site La Voz de Guancaste back in October of 2016 regarding the water issues affecting Hermosa in Guanacaste