“Unsustainable” is the word Mariana* uses to describe the real estate growth in the community of Matapalo. After the COVID-19 pandemic, she noticed that luxury homes began to multiply in the mountains around her home.
“I’m talking about houses with ocean views, swimming pools, and everything… They’re not normal houses,” she described. She’s outraged about more than the change in landscape. How did they acquire water availability letters if the Matapalo ASADA (community water board) is in the red? Why do they tell some people that there’s no water, while giving others water?
In 2020, the Costa Rican Institute of Aqueducts and Sewers (AyA) determined that the Matapalo ASADA has a negative water balance. That means that the aqueduct doesn’t have sufficient flow to meet the community’s water demand, as stated in document GSD-UEN-GAR-2020-01424.
Since then, the institution has recommended that the ASADA deny new water availability letters until the community aqueduct increases its registered flow rate with the Water Administration (Spanish acronym: DA).
The negative water balance was estimated based on the 8.6 liters per second (l/s) of flow that the ASADA has under concession, coming from three wells registered with the DA. However, the aqueduct also uses a fourth, unregistered well and the AyA’s Nimboyores coastal aqueduct as sources of water.
Currently, water demand in the area reaches up to 19 liters per second, according to a technical study presented by the ASADA to AyA in April of this year. Taking into consideration the four wells and Nimboyores, the ASADA has an approximate water capacity of 23 l/s (18 l/s extracted from the four wells and 5 l/s received from Nimboyores), the study details.
“If a well goes out of operation, the production flow decreases due to the dry season, or if the Matapalo aqueduct receives a flow lower than the 5 l/s from the [Nimboyores] coastal aqueduct, a deficit results,” according to the study.
The ASADA’s president, Efraín Obando, told The Voice that the community aqueduct does have enough water to cover the community’s services.
“We have plenty of water. The problem is that the flow rate hasn’t been declared,” Obando commented, adding that the land where the unregistered well is located isn’t in the ASADA’s name, and this prevents it from being recognized by the Water Administration.
To Obando, the ASADA urgently needs to have more water flow in order to not depend on the Nimboyores aqueduct. According to the president, its service is deficient. “It’s not continuous. The service gets to them three or four days a week. There are days when we don’t get water,” he remarked.
Users Increase Despite Non-Feasibility
The declaration of non-feasibility didn’t stop the area’s growth or the increase in users connected to the ASADA, who, according to the ASADA’s president, had received approved water availability letters before the declaration of non-feasibility.
Between December 2021 and April 2025, the number of users increased by 58.7%, which means 312 new connections, according to data provided to The Voice by the ASADA’s system operator, Balbino López.
“From 2022 until now, there have been zero renewals and zero letters issued… There are people who already had the letter requested for building permits. And the law says that once you have the letter and the ASADA has committed to providing you water, water has to be provided,” Obando explained.
But Mariana*, a community resident, says she has witnessed that new letters have been issued. She stated that she obtained her water availability letter in 2024, after gathering information that other availability letters were being issued, but she was being denied it.
“They told me they would give it to me but that I shouldn’t tell anyone,” she commented. “What I disapprove of is that they told us [the community] that there was no water when you’re seeing construction going on.”
AyA denies request for increased flow.
In April of 2025, the ASADA submitted a study to AyA to justify increasing the flow rate in one of its wells. The well currently supplies the community aqueduct with 3.5 l/s, but a pumping test demonstrated that it can supply up to 15 l/s.
With this new flow rate, the ASADA would increase its water capacity by up to 66% (including the real flow rate used by the ASADA and the well that isn’t registered with the AyA). According to Obando, this would be enough to solve the supply problems and again have feasibility to issue water availability certificates. In other words: to once again have a positive water balance.
However, AyA rejected the flow increase because it had to do with the well that isn’t registered with the DA.
“It has been decided to reject the proposal. This is because the ASADA does not have the flow rates registered with the DA of MINAE (Ministry of Environment) to cover future water demand,” states AyA’s response.
AyA’s negative response also mentioned that approving the ASADA’s proposal isn’t possible because the Huacas-Tamarindo aquifer, which feeds the wells, is under restricted use due to overexploitation.
*Mariana is a fictitious name used at the request of the person interviewed.
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