Adriana Sequeira and Jonathan Baltodano are among the 246 families that were affected by the last swell of the Río Nosara. On the evening of Friday, November 5th, the river forced them to take all their furniture out of their home. They had to spend the night out in the open, in their neighbor’s small ranchito.
Early Saturday morning, the toughest task awaited them: cleaning the mud, which came with stones, sticks and trash, from their home and furniture. The river left the mud as a souvenir, after leaving as quickly as it had come. “It came in and went through our house like nothing,” Sequeira said. “In May it had also come in, but not with such force.” Sequeira has lived in this house for only nine months.
The Rio Nosara swells are not new, repeating themselves year after year. During the summer of 2007, the CNE invested 140 million colones in a river dredging project and a retaining wall or dam. However, both the dredging project and the retaining wall were done without considering the river’s natural course. In October, 2008, a swell destroyed the newly built dam, forcing 56 families to relocate for several days to the Serapio López Fajardo School shelter.
The Sta. Marta cross, close to the Nosara river,
had almost 2 mts of water
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During a visit to the area in October, 2008, the CNE’s President, Miguel Gallardo, promised a new dredging project and a retaining wall for the Rio Nosara. At the time, he assured the community that the river’s natural course would be respected. “From a human perspective, the current situation is extremely costly,” he stated in an interview with the VON on October 20th, 2008.
By the end of 2009, after a year of waiting, a group of Nosara residents filed an appeal before the Sala IV, requesting the intervention of the CNE in building the retaining wall promised by Gallardo. In May, 2010, the members of the Sala IV agreed with the area’s residents, ordering the CNE to build the previously promised retaining wall. The topographical work and the hydraulic studies done by the Senara and paid for by the CNE are now ready, but it is still uncertain when the dredging project will begin.
The River Bed
The Río Nosara is born in Hojancha’s mountains and extends for 50 kilometers. Along its path it goes through several communities before reaching Nosara. One of these towns is Belen, Nicoya which, according to Christophe Husbamn, Nosara town Water Board President, “is also located on the banks of the river but does not get flooded because the river flows properly”. However, in Nosara, the river flattens out and, thanks to the high tides from the Pacific Ocean, “Water is unable to get out (into the ocean),” explains Husbamn. This phenomenon explains why Nosara is the only community affected by the river swells, causing the constant flooding.
On Wednesday, November 3rd and Friday, November 5th, the community endured the heavy rains caused by tropical storm Thomas, which caused 48 people to be relocated to a shelter at the Serapio López School. Other families were forced to leave their homes due to the swell, staying with family or friends; however, many people simply had to stay, helplessly watching as the water ruined their belongings.
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Faustino Castro Espinoza lives next to the airport’s landing strip. With his arm extended at shoulder-level, he points to where to water level rose on the night of Friday, Nov 5th. The landing strip runs parallel to the Rio Nosara, a stream that fills up during the rainy season runs underneath. This stream stops its flow when the river swells. |
Such was the case for Rocío Efenner Zumbado, who lives 300 meters away from Santa Marta’s soccer field. Since they were completely surrounded by water, the CNE informed them that they could not be assisted -- it was impossible to reach them. Rocío and her husband, Juan Vega Aguilar, lost a most of their furniture and appliances. Vega, who had just arrived from San Jose to work as a chef in one of the area’s hotels, also lost his job.
Climate Change
Luis Alvarado, a meteorologist at the Instituto Meteorológico Nacional (IMN) who specializes in climatology, explained that Guanacaste received 50% more rain than it usually does since “La Niña (which causes large-scale atmospheric changes) and a climate phenomenon in the Atlantic Ocean merged, bringing a lot of humidity (to Costa Rica).” When asked if there is a tendency towards an increase in the amount of rainfall, Alvarado explained, “There will not be a short-term increase (in rainfall) since 2010 was an unusual year however, we will have very strong fluctuations from one year to the next for the following 10 to 20 years.”
Alvarado added “In general, rainfall tends to fall in just a few hours, with amounts varying from one place to another.” This explains why it may rain heavily in Nosara but not in Guiones, just 6 kilometers away. “The weather is not what it used to be, we are going through a gradual change”.
The Economic Costs of the Rain
On November 15th, an article in El Financiero noted that in 2010 the country’s deficit could grow from 3% of the GDP (Gross Domestic Product) to 5.3%, thereby increasing the country’s debt. This is due to the expenses that must be covered by the government as a result of the emergencies in the past few weeks.
Just in Nosara one Bailey bridge had to be installed over the Rio Frio after the old cement bridge collapsed, with an approximate cost of 82 million colones. According to Mario William, Local Coordinator of Nicoya’s CNE, as a result of tropical storm Thomas they incurred in expenses of more than 650.000 colones in cash for gas, meals and compensation for the rescue workers and aqueduct pipe repair. This amount does not include expenses related to the use of light aircraft and the helicopter to carry food, or the blankets, mattresses and 400 water and food packages that were purchased in Nosara. The almost 70 families that will receive monetary assistance from the Instituto Mixto de Ayuda Social (IMAS) must also be added to the list.
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In Adriana´s Sequeira house, as in many other houses, furnitures and electrique machines had to be lift up to protect them from the water and mud. |
These numbers only represent the expenses for repairing the immediate damages; the exact amount that must be covered by the government is unknown. However, they show that material and human costs add up and continue to increase, year after year, due to the slow response on behalf of the authorities and to the lack of a preventive strategies and foresight in regards to emergency situations.
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