Christine Folch

Hello, I am Roy, retired electrical engineer from the USA living in Costa Rica since 2005. I am writing you because of your expertise in environmental studies with a focus on Latin America. I find it surprising that a country such as Costa Rica whom relies heavily on Environmental Tourism (Tourism was more than 50% of the GDP of CR but that was before Intel pulled out back in 2015. Intel provided 34% of all exports of CR! With that great loss, Tourism is now even more important than ever! Yet Costa Rica does not have basic water treatment plants! Raw sewage is flushed into a holding tank (Without a leaching field) and the top water of the tank is ran Directly into the rivers without any treatment at all! No fish live in ANY of the rivers that run through the Capitol of San Jose, Costa Rica. Also the rivers are used as one would use a garbage can. Yet the government provides electricity (100% renewable including hydro, geothermal, and wind power (listed in order of MW produced) (CR makes more power than it can consume and the extra is sold off to Nicaragua, so power to run treatment plants is not an issue) built mostly by the US Army Corps of Engineers and a couple by the sovereign nation of China. What I am, getting at is the country has every modern convince available to man except the great necessity to purify the sewage before it is released into the environment. Yet when a foreign company wants to build a resort they have to also build Their Own Water Treatment Plant! Yes, it's TRUE! Ok, that's great, but why not have the government chip in and purchase a much larger treatment plant to clean the entire towns water before it is dumped into the ocean? ~Roy