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FOREIGN RESORTS BATTLE LOCAL CITIZENS FOR LIMITED WATER ON COSTA RICA'S GOLD COAST.

Article Excerpt
Foreign investors, say environmentalists, are sucking parts of Costa Rica dry. At issue is a US$300 million project that would divert water from dwindling Lake Arenal to the country's driest region, in Guanacaste, to satisfy the needs of lavish resorts on what is called the Gold Coast. This is just one of several such projects, planned or in process. "It's not the coastal communities that need water," said environmentalist Gadi Amit of the Federacion Costarricense para la Conservacion del Ambiente (FECON). "Who needs the water are the hotels and condos and a long list of business projects."

Lake Arenal is an artificial reservoir more than 100 km from the coast. Its waters are let out through three dams, making the lake a principal source of electricity, and irrigate about 28,000 hectares of rice, melon, sugarcane, and other crops through gigantic canals. The lake is already shrinking because of changing weather patterns. The plan to send enough water for 300,000 people to play in at the beach has pitted farmers and environmentalists against a government hungry for tourism and infrastructure-development dollars.

The government says these concerns are overwrought. Amit says the government has it backwards. "Growth has to be planned. If you don't have a basis for growth, it's bad planning. If there's no water, you can't build."

Herman Araya, interim director of the Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados (AyA) Guanacaste region, said his agency has asked the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI) for US$50 million...