Daily Edition: San José, Costa Rica, August 25, 2005
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
New Water Law
Awaits Approval
With the goal of increasing conservation and protection of the country's water resources, officials from myriad Costa Rican and international institutions met yesterday to promote a bill for a new Law of Water Resources.
(Click for more)
Garbage Collectors' 100-Hour
Hunger Strike Ends Successfully
A hunger strike garbage collectors waged for 100 hours in front of the Municipality of Tibás, north of San José, ended in success late Tuesday evening.
(Click for more)
Government Plans New
Campaign Against Dengue
The government of Costa Rica announced Tuesday that it will launch a campaign against the spread of dengue. Diagnosed cases of the disease since January have shown a 200% rise in comparison with the same period last year.
(Click for more)
August 25
Videoteca del Sur Film Festival
Tonight at 7 p.m., the film “Linda Sara,” by Puerto Rican director Jacobo Morales at Sala Gómez Miralles, Centro de Cine, behind INS. Info: 223-2127, 223-0610.
Julliard Jazz Orchestra
The orchestra will perform tonight at 8 p.m., National Theater, Av. 2, Ca. 3/5. Info: 207-7574.
Zarzuela “Luisa Fernanda”
By composer Federico Moreno Torroba, to be performed Aug. 25-28, 30-31, Sept. 1, at 8 p.m., at the Melico Salazar Theater, Av. 2, Ca. Ctrl./2.
Edited By Robert Goodier
Tico Times Staff
rgoodier@ticotimes.net
New Water Law
Awaits Approval
By Rebecca Kimitch
Tico Times Staff
rkimitch@ticotimes.net
With the goal of increasing conservation and protection of the country's water resources, officials from myriad Costa Rican and international institutions met yesterday to promote a bill for a new Law of Water Resources.
Although tropical Costa Rica boasts an abundance of water, demands on the resource are also abundant: among them, agriculture, hydroelectric power, human consumption, golf courses and water-intensive ecology. Contamination by waste and agriculture chemicals is a reality that threatens aquifers and drinking water supplies, Maureen Ballestero, coordinator of the Global Water Partnership, reminded an audience of hundreds at yesterday's conference.
The country's current water law dates from 1942. In addition, more than 100 other laws and decrees have something to do with water. Nearly 17 institutions have some legal power in water management (TT, March 18). All of this results in an outdated and ungovernable system, according to José Manuel Hermida of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), which is funding efforts to return governability to Costa Rica 's water management.
“The problems we face are not caused by lack of water, but rather by lack of governablility,” he said.
The proposed law aims to update and clean up this chaos. Under the law, the Ministry of Environment and Energy (MINAE) would oversee all water-related issues. The law would create a National Administration of Water Resources, a National Water Council and a Water Technical Committee.
The National Administration of Water Resources would be responsible for granting concessions and permission to anyone wishing to use water in the country.
The new law would also dramatically increase penalties – now as low as ¢40 ($0.08) – for not adhering to the law. People who contaminate aquifers or rivers would be punished by up to six years in prison. In addition, people who use more water than they are allowed under their concessions would face up to five years in prison.
Now, people, companies and institutions that hold water concessions only pay for the administration and infrastructure of the water, but not for the ecological value of the water, Hermida said.
The $20-25 million generated over the next 10 years under the system will be invested directly in the protection of watersheds throughout the country to guarantee the sustainability of water resources.
Garbage Collectors' 100-Hour
Hunger Strike Ends Successfully
By María Gabriela Díaz
Tico Times Staff
mgdiaz@ticotimes.net
|
TAKING a stand: Patricia Sánchez is one of the 12 municipal workers in Tibás, north of San José , who waged a hunger strike for 100 hours protesting the mayor's decision to fire 55 of their co-workers, all of them living in poverty. The strike ended Tuesday night. |
A hunger strike garbage collectors waged for 100 hours in front of the Municipality of Tibás, north of San José, ended in success late Tuesday evening.
On Friday, 13 of the 40 garbage collectors recently fired by the Tibás Municipality started the strike in protest of their dismissal, municipality spokeswoman Karla Vásquez told The Tico Times yesterday.
The garbage collectors were fired for their participation in a 15-day strike in July, when they claimed the municipality was not providing them with the necessary tools to do their job, including shovels and brooms to clean up the streets (TT, July 15).
After five days without food, the protestors obtained the benefits they sought: a raise, along with assurances that they will receive payment of their aguinaldo (a year-end bonus) and bono escolar (a back-to-school bonus equivalent to 2% of their salaries to help pay for their children's schooling costs).
The 13 strikers will go back to work on Monday after three days of paid leave to recover their strength, Vásquez said. The other 27 fired employees returned to their jobs yesterday.
According to municipality spokesman Alexis Chacón, WPP, a private waste management company, collected approximately 120 tons of garbage accumulated throughout Tibás on Sunday.
“It is not fair to the community to have their health threatened because of the negative and negligent attitudes of some workers, who without any reason, or any previous dialogue, go on strike,” Tibás Mayor Percy Rodríguez said.
Government Plans New
Campaign Against Dengue
The government of Costa Rica announced Tuesday that it will launch a campaign against the spread of dengue. Diagnosed cases of the disease since January have shown a 200% rise in comparison with the same period last year.
President Abel Pacheco, speaking yesterday at a press conference, told reporters that “dengue has risen because we have lowered our guard, but I believe that Costa Ricans, by raising their guard, will decrease the epidemic.”
So far in 2005, the Health Ministry has reported a total of 15,533 cases of classic dengue, up from the 5,200 cases that were registered during the same period in 2004.
Delia Villalobos, Vice-Minister of Public Health, said the ministry will carry out a campaign throughout the country to raise awareness among the population about the consequences of dengue, and to initiate a drive to eliminate the breeding grounds of the Aedes Aegypti mosquito, the carrier of the disease.
The campaign, with a cost of ¢26 million ($54,000), will consist of house- by-house inspections by teams of health experts and broadcasts of preventative messages on television, radio and newspapers, by President Pacheco.
This past Saturday, Costa Rica registered the first death attributed to the disease since 1999 when 24-year-old Christian Rodriguez died in a hospital in Puntarenas, on the Central Pacific coast. Health authorities say they are awaiting the results of an autopsy to determine whether Rodríguez succumbed to hemorrhagic dengue or leptospirosis, a rat-borne disease caused by spirochaete bacteria, which exhibits similar symptoms to dengue.
According to official data, 43% of diagnosed cases of classic dengue were reported in the Central Pacific region, while 38% have been registered in the Atlantic region.
Areas close to metropolitan districts and other parts of the country have reported only a minority of the cases.
-Tico Times and ACAN-EFE reports
Daily News | Home | Top Story | Business News | Central American News
Editorial Cartoon | Weekend | Exchange Rates | Fishing | Culture | Classified Ads
Display Ads | Subscribe! | Travel Guide | Archives | Links | About Us | Newsstand Locations
Contact Us