Nicaragua's National Assembly is looking to create a special commission to investigate reports that Costa Rican farmers' dredging waters that flow into the San Juan River are lowering the river's level, with potentially drastic effects, legislators say.
Carlos Garc í a, president of the assembly's Environmental Commission, says the special commission would bring together Nicaraguan officials from the Tourism Institute, defense and foreign policy representatives, and environmentalists on a possible tour to the river.
“We want to see the veracity of the information we're receiving,” Garc í a said, referring to recent reports from liberal legislator Maximino Rodríguez that dredging in waters that feed into the San Juan have caused lower water levels in the San Juan, which, in turn, have affected the river's flora and fauna and navigability. Rodríguez received the information from aides who recently visited the river.
Additionally, the commission would also look into possibilities that the pesticides from Costa Rican rice, banana and citrus farms have contaminated the river, and also that environmental damage has been caused by mines near the border.
The San Juan River has been a magnet of controversy for centuries. During the colonial era, it was sought after by governments and pirates alike as a transportation route from the Caribbean to the Pacific, and inspired dreams of a trans-Oceanic canal since before Panama capitalized on the idea.
Read this Friday's print or digital edition of The Nica Time's, an eight-page publication of The Tico Times, for more on this story. |
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