The trial against a man named Víquez Mora, whom the Environmental Agrarian Deputy Prosecutor’s Office accused of usurping and contaminating the Buena Vista riverbed, in Rivas de Pérez Zeledón, is approaching its conclusion.
The process began on August 20th, in the Criminal Court of the town La Piedra, after the investigation conducted by the Prosecutor for the events that have their origin in December 2013, when the defendant started a procedure to obtain a concession for the use of water.
Víquez filed a petition with the Water Directorate of the Ministry of Environment and Energy (MINAE) to capture 350 liters per second of the Buena Vista River and direct them to his farm. According to the investigation, as of April 26th, 2016 the accused had built 11 ponds for aquaculture on the aforementioned property, captured water from the river and channeled it to the ponds, despite not having the respective permits; and commercialized trout, by means of the company Truchas Reales de Costa Rica.
This happened despite the fact that, one year earlier, in March 2015, an official from the Water Directorate made an inspection on the farm and warned Víquez that using any amount of the liquid without authorization was a crime.
As part of the irregularities detected, it is believed that, between April 26th, 2016 and May 30th, 2017, the accused diverted and took from 328 to 1,344 liters of water per second, which he used in the ponds of aquaculture.
On May 4th, 2016, Víquez would have used all the liquid that flowed through the Buena Vista River, leaving no water remaining for third parties or for wildlife in the area.
In addition, the Environmental Prosecutor’s Office accused him of having built a tank drainage channel, through which he discarded wastewater containing excrements and food waste for trout into the riverbed, without any prior treatment and without the discharge permit.
Therefore, the prosecution formulated the accusation for the crimes of usurpation of goods of public domain, which is punished with six months to four years of prison; water usurpation, penalized with one month to two years in prison and a fine of 10 to 100 days; and polluting water, whose penalty ranges from one to three years in prison.