Legislators, ministers and environmentalists joined yesterday in urging the central government to stand firm on its orders to close the Hotel Allegro Papagayo.

Last Wednesday, the 300-room Guanacaste hotel – which houses almost 600 guests – was ordered closed in 24 hours by officials from the Health Ministry, who had discovered clandestine pipes dumping sewage into an adjoining estuary, which leads to the Pacific Ocean.

The hotel appealed, stalling closure for almost five days, but yesterday Health Minister María Luisa Avila confirmed the order and said appeals had been denied.

Environment and Energy Minister Roberto Dobles also showed his support.

“This hotel must have a sewage treatment plant…and right now, that is not the case,” said Dobles, citing the hotel's months of violations and warnings issued by Environment Ministry (MINAE).

Three hours later, legislators from the Citizen Action Party (PAC) gathered at the National Assembly, urging the immediate closure of the hotel and calling for more forceful compliance with the country's environmental laws.

“Our government institutions must fight to assure laws are followed. In this case, as in so many others in Guanacaste, the authorities don't intervene or they do it too late. Now is the time,” said Guanacaste legislator José Rosales.

The hotel, part of the government-sponsored Papagayo Tourism Project in the northwestern corner of Costa Rica has long been hailed as “eco-friendly” by government officials and Costa Rican Tourism Institute (ICT) promotion.

Environmentalists, including the Guanacaste Brotherhood, the local environmental group that warned of the situation three weeks prior, and the Costa Rican Federation for the Environment (FECON), an umbrella group for almost 30 environmental groups countrywide, also showed their support for the hotel's closure.

“This has gone on long enough. The hotel is still not closed. The situation is outrageous, and we urge the government to take action now,” said Gadi Amit, vice president of the Guanacaste Brotherhood.

Health Ministry officials first discovered the hotel dumping sewage into the neighboring estuary via hidden pipes in April. Two weeks later, hotel manager Guillermo Guerra assured them in a written letter that the problem had been “definitely solved.”

Over the next few months, as reported Jan. 25 in The Tico Times, residents and government officials discovered the hotel was trucking its sewage to overburdened and often illegal dumpsites throughout Guanacaste, transferring the contamination from its own estuary to neighboring towns.

Last week, after months of foot-dragging, the Health Ministry called for the hotel's closure until the hotel could prove operation of a functioning sewage treatment plant, a stipulation required in its original contract with the government.