Photos by Arianna McKinney

For years people have dumped trash beside the road at the intersection in Cantarrana of Samara.  The problem got worse in December, when the municipality stopped picking it up. That’s when neighbors, with the help of the ASADA (Asociacion Administradora de Agua - Water Administration Association) of Cangrejal, decided enough was enough. 

Miguel Gomez, president of the ASADA, had the idea to create a garden in the area, and since the garden was installed on January 5th, the corner has been trash free. The ASADA funded the project, spending 60,000 colones ($120) to pay a private truck to pick up the garbage, 110,500 ($221) to install the garden and 51,000 ($102) for installation of a water spout to water the garden, as well as stone and other materials.  Several neighbors and children pitched in to create the garden. 
  
“Now foreigners stop to take pictures of the garden.  Before they took photos of the trash,” remarked neighbor Damaris Diaz. She related that years ago someone left a bag of garbage on that corner and afterwards others started doing it, both locals and foreigners, and vultures would pick open the bags so the garbage would spill out and create a foul smell.

“The municipality should be ashamed,” stated Roberto Naldacce, who lives across from the area.  He said he personally went to clean garbage up there many times through the years.

Bonifacio Diaz, syndic for the district of Samara, explained that the Municipality isn’t obligated to pick up the trash there since people don’t pay for garbage collection service in that area.