On Friday, October 25, Vanessa Rosales Ardón, the president of the National Emergencies Committee (CNE), visited Nosara to officially inaugurate the works completed during the first stage of intervention on the Nosara River.
The inauguration, originally scheduled for 2 p.m., was changed to noon because of the possibility of rain. Although the threat of rain loomed in the cloudy skies and it even started to rain lightly, there was a good turnout from neighbors, representatives of the Nosara Integral Development Association (ADIN), the public police force and the mayor of Nicoya, Marco Jimenez, as well as engineers and officials from the National Service of Groundwater, Drainage and Irrigation (SENARA), who oversaw the project.
Rosales Ardón recapitulated to The Voice that the project directly benefits 350 families whose homes were affected by flooding, as well as protecting a national roadway, the airport and other public structures.
She explained that before beginning the intervention, local community members, businesses, representatives of the tourism sector and environmentalists were consulted and studies were conducted to determine the most appropriate and lasting type of work to address the problem of flooding, and they also wanted to do so in a way that would combine with the natural panorama.
“It is a very well-done work, done as we wanted, not ugly or intrusive,” the CNE president remarked, “and the most important for us is that the neighbors are satisfied.”
She specified that the work done is not really a dike but rather a control structure with a nucleus designed to retain the water, along with work on the riverbed to improve the flow of water.
Preparations are being made to begin the next phase of similar work, extending downriver to the Santa Marta area. Rosales Ardón said they are working on the necessary hydraulic and ground studies and plan to take advantage of the upcoming dry season to continue with the intervention work. After the second phase is completed, she said they will evaluate whether a third phase will be necessary.
For the first phase, Geology and Mines granted four concessions for extracting materials for use in the work: one from the river itself, two from properties belonging to John Fraser and one from a property belonging to Manuel Antonio Rosales, both residents of Nosara.
Some in Nosara expressed concern for possible affects on the environment as a result of the extraction of material from the hill next to the river. During the inauguration, people went up to the terraces cut into the hillside to inspect it.
When asked about the hill, Rosales Ardón referred to it as a cliff and specified that the concession has terminated and it is a private matter up to the land’s owner whether to replant or restore it.
Geologist Joana Mendez, who oversaw this aspect of the work, said that the closure of the extraction site has been done, the necessary terraces were made and corn plants are already beginning to grow there.
The first phase of the intervention had a total cost of 373,087,500 colones ($746,175).
The work initiated on April 24th and is being done by the construction company HHB Consa.
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