The extraordinary resources to address the emergency caused by Hurricane Otto in Upala are being delayed due to conflicts in the Legislative Assembly.
In a few days, the public institutions will cease their activities for what’s left of the year and the Legislative Assembly must hurry to approve a budget of 2 billion colones intended for the repair of Upala’s damaged houses.
But three lawmakers are holding back the vote: Abelino Esquivel, from the Renovación Costarricense Party, Rosibel Ramos and William Alvarado, both from the Unidad Social Cristiana Party (PUSC).
This is because they are trying to have the budget vote on the deadline, which could even be on December 26th when time the entities involved would have already closed.
According to the lawmakers, some of the reasons for opposing are: the fact that the Canton of Matina was not included in the budget, for which they are asking 500 million colones to repair the aqueduct; and the fact that the 2 billion colones allocation is badly designed. They insist on a proposal to take 10 billion colones from the amortization of public debt to serve the affected areas.
Legislators from other parties are requesting that they facilitate the process and explore other options to meet the needs of their communities, but by December 12th, there was no agreement.
According to data from the National Emergency Commission (CNE), the hurricane left 10 fatal victims, 10,831 people directly affected, 461 villages with some type of damage and 1,598 affected homes.