For the second time, the Constitutional Chamber agreed with the residents of La Guaria del Valle la Estrella in Limón, in their struggle to have clean water. The community filed a writ of amparo against the Institute of Aqueducts and Sewers (AyA , the Ministry of Health, and the Public Services Regulatory Authority (ARESEP) for contamination in the water resource.
The appellants assured that they must use filters due to the dirt in the water. The situation affects La Guaria School with more than 350 students, but also businesses and homes. According to the remedy of amparo, this situation has been going on for several years.
According to the complaint, the town is also affected by diarrhea and vomiting. Even the school canteen cannot work with the water from the aqueduct.
The drinking water supply system of La Guaria in Valle La Estrella also supplies the communities of Jupiter and Siberia, and has been assumed by the AyA since April 2014. The Institute presented a document, which summarizes the quality of the water in the Huetar region of the Caribbean from January 1st to May 31st, 2018, to justify that the liquid is drinkable.
Since August 2017 there are orders from the Ministry of Health about the situation in the area and subsequent verifications. The AyA assured the magistrates that the water consumed by the community is of potable quality, and there are no records of notifications by health entities about health effects associated with the aqueduct water.
This is a service that the institution provides by complying with the parameters of quality , quantity and continuity (…) the service is provided in optimal conditions and meets the purity required for human consumption,”
defended the entity.
But the Constitutional Chamber did not endorse that position. Instead, the magistrates assured that
it is clear there is enough evidence to demonstrate the pollution in La Guaria aqueduct,”
based on the testimonies of neighbors about the coffee color, the smell and taste of the water, verified by Health inspections.
The Guiding Health Area in Limón conducted inspections in July and verified what was claimed by the neighbors.
In January 2011, the residents of this community protested for their right to have an aqueduct, something that has been claimed since 2005. They received water with a tanker for many years.
In February 2013, they took to the streets again because the drinking water project was paralyzed and the contamination of the liquid was sustained.
In the previous government, AyA invested ¢ 905 million in works in La Guaria aqueduct. A high pumping-chlorination house was built; pumping and chlorination equipment; a flyover over La Estrella river; a storage tank and more. This benefits more than 4,500 people according to the Works Map of the Solís Rivera Administration.
On July 21st, National Liberation David Gourzong denounced that the base of the drinking water tank that supplies the community of La Guaria was threatened by landslides after the rains that hit the Caribbean.