index

	A.M. Costa Rica Your daily English-language news source Monday through Friday

A.M. Costa Rica third newspage
Home	Tourism	Calendar	Classifieds	Entertainment	Real estate	Rentals	Sports	About us
San José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, Jan. 3, 2007, Vol. 7, No. 2

The Cordillera Volcánica Central north of San José is where five rivers are born.

Heredia water company pays off ranchers to protect sources

By Dennis Rogers
Special to A.M. Costa Rica

Empresa de Servicios Públicos de Heredia S.A. has successfully developed a project which pays landowners to maintain their properties to slow water runoff.

The project, called PROCUENCAS, is designed to protect and rehabilitate the land along the upper reaches of rivers that provide water to Heredia by paying landowners for their participation. While the concept of environmental protection as a public service is not new, this project, active since 2000, now has 808 hectares (1,997 acres) under contract.

Empresa de Servicios Públicos de Heredia is the principal water supplier for the immediate Heredia area. The firm draws water from a variety of wells and surface sources on the upper reaches of the rios Ciruelas, Segundo, Bermúdez, Tibás, Pará, and las Vueltas, all tributaries of the Río Virilla. Incentives for expanded agricultural production in the 1960s and 1970s resulted in marginal cattle pasture well up onto the slopes of Volcan Barva. Erosion and rapid runoff from pasture affected water quality and reduced dry-season flow.

PROCUENCAS gets its money from a surcharge on water usage, originally 1.9 colons per cubic meter, now 3.8 colons. With a small phone survey, Empresa de Servicios Públicos de Heredia determined that the extra charge for watershed protection has overwhelming public support. In the case of an unmetered residential customer, the added amount is only 46 colons per month, less than 8 U.S. cents.

The original payment structure was targeted at deforested land which could be put to better use reforested for watershed protection. The headwaters of these streams are protected in the Area de Conservación Cordillera Volcánica Central with the target area for PROCUENCAS the highest deforested areas.

The cost of discontinuing low-intensity cattle grazing was estimated at about $158 per hectare. A complicated formula was then devised to calculate additional value added in terms of oxygen production, etc. In the end, the Authoridad Reguladora de Servicios Públicos approved the 1.9-colon rate, ignoring the formula. This allowed a

A.M. Costa Rica/Dennis Rogers

The Río Para at low water near the source

payment for services of 23,000 colons per hectare, then about $68.

With the revenue from the higher tariff approved later, the payment could be increased. Presently it is 47.720 colons, about $92 per hectare. This is to conserve existing forest (which can’t be cut anyway) or allow natural regeneration to second-growth.

A cultural adversion on the part of the farmers to brush (charral) complicates the system. Apparently, allowing pasture to follow a pattern of natural succession is somehow considered abandonment and failure, though the natural forest would be fine for purposes of watershed protection. So subsidies for reforestation were introduced. They are almost $1,000 per year for five years, including saplings provided by Empresa de Servicios Públicos de Heredia.

Contracts are for 10 years. With 808 hectares currently in the program, total expenditures for 2006 were about 39 million colons, or $75,000. With a target area of more than 5,000 hectares, plenty of growth is possible.

Water outage due to pump failure shows fragility of system

By Dennis Rogers
Special to A.M. Costa Rica

Most of the second week of December saw water rationing in San Isidro de Heredia. Residents were restricted to about four hours of daytime water supply. According to Laura Rodríguez, director of communications and media relations for Empresa de Servicios Públicos de Heredia S.A., the cause was a breakdown at the Santa Elena well.

“There are only three cranes in the country so it’s not something you fix from one day to the next,” she said of the device needed to extract a submerged pump.

The utility provides water service for the municipalities of Heredia central, San Rafael, and San Isidro. It claims to serve 51,700 customers, with about 36,500 in Heredia, 11,000 in San Rafael, and 4,000 in San Isidro, as of August 2006. As this is significantly more than the number of households found for each in the 2000 census, the number of businesses served must be substantial. The utility also supplies electricity in a similar area.

Empresa de Servicios Públicos is rather efficiently run for a government agency, as anyone who has let their electricty bill lapse can attest. It has about 20 wells in operation, concentrated in the immediate Heredia area. There are also surface intakes on a variety of streams above the towns.
That 7.5 percent of customers can suffer outages due to the failure of one pump suggests weaknesses in connections.

The culprit well was drilled in February 2002 near the Santa Cruz school, about a kilometer east of San Isidro, at a cost of 22 million colons (then about $64,000). The well has a capacity of 40 to 50 liters per second and a depth of 245 meters.

The Lomas del Zurquí housing development nearby has its own well, but will be dependent on Empresa de Servicios Públicos for water when the subdivision outgrows its own small system, adding another 500 to 800 unmetered users to the firm's network. There are also two small intakes on the headwaters of the Río Pará above San Josecito that were presumably the source of the available water during the pump outage.

You need to see Costa Rican tourism information HERE!

A.M. Costa Rica fourth news page
Home	Tourism	Calendar	Classifieds	Entertainment	Real estate	Rentals	Sports	About us
San José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, Jan. 3, 2007, Vol. 7, No. 2

Fuerza Pública patrol foils robbery of three U.S. tourists

By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

Two bandits, one with a gun and the other with a knife, attempted to stick up three U.S. tourists Saturday night in San Jose's Barrio Amón.

But a witness to the robbery quickly notified police, and Fuerza Pública officers on patrol nearby were able to detain two suspects. They were identified by the last names of Benavides Barboza, whose age is 19, and a 22-year-old man with the last names of Navarrete Ortiz.

The three U.S. citizens were identified by the last names of Kimberly, Whitlock and Jenkins. They were on foot when the robbers, also on foot, approached them. The crime happened on Avenida 7 in the vicinity of Casa Amarilla, the foreign ministry.

The section of street is well traveled by tourists who go from their hotels to several popular eating spots or just go out for a stroll.

In the same neighborhood Dec. 20 two men attempted to hold up a brother and sister, but the man, a Marine and Iraqi war veteran, managed to fend off the assailants.

Investigators have not yet determined if the two men who were detained are suspected as being those who tried to rob the brother and sister Dec. 20.

The area north of Parque Morazán along Avenida 7, Avenida 9 and Calle 7 is a prime spot for robbers because a number of North American and European tourists frequent the many hotels there. And they often walk at night to the downtown or restaurants nearby.

Unity will host an introduction to Kabbalah this Sunday

By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

A Kabbalah information session, open to persons interested in learning about the philosophy's practices and living traditions, is being hosted by Unity Costa Rica Sunday.

The guest speaker for the event, entitled “Intuitive Kabbalah,” is Soizic Aureli, a psychosynthesis
counsellor who has been working with the practice for 25 years, said Unity.

Aureli's Web site describes Kabbalah as a Judeo Christian

esoteric living tradition which is supposed to present a unique way of understanding all aspects of oneself. It also says that it is based on a map of consciousness called the Tree of Life, which consists of 10 spheres called Sephirot and 22 Paths, that the Tarot is reportedly based on.

The information session will be held from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. at Unity Costa Rica in Piedades de Santa Ana, which is 350 meters south of the Shang Hai restaurant. There is also a workshop that is set to begin on Feb. 11.

More information is available from info@unitycostarica.org

Venezuelan prison violence leaves 16 inmates dead and 13 more injured
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff Venezuelan authorities say at least 16 prisoners were killed when rival gangs fought for control of a crowded prison. They say at least 13 other inmates were injured before the riot was brought under control at Uribana prison, west of	the capital of Caracas. Authorities said Tuesday the violence started early Monday when the gangs fought for control of two cell blocks. Riots, murders and other violence are common in Venezuela's overcrowded prisons.


News from the BBC up to the minute	BBC sports news up to the minute
BBC news and sports feeds are disabled on archived pages.

A.M. Costa Rica
Sports news
local and from the wires

Home	Calendar	Place a classified ad	Classifieds	Real estate	Food	About us
San José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, Jan. 3, 2007, Vol. 7, No. 2

Surf tournament returns to Jacó beach this weekend

By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

Jacó beach is set to host the first Costa Rican surf competition of 2007 this Saturday and Sunday.

All 12 surf categories will be competing in Copa Mango this weekend, begining at 7 a.m. each morning in front of the Copacabana hotel. The hotel is also hosting a welcoming party for surfers and fans Friday night begining at 9 p.m.

This event is worth 500 points towards the overall championship in the Circuito Nacional de Surf. Competitors have an opportunity to sign up for the event at the Mango Surf & Skate shop in downtown Jacó.

The ongoing Miss Surf Costa Rica competition will be held before the final ceremonies Sunday. Winners of this event are automatically qualified for April's final competition, when judges will crown this year's overall winner. Contestants looking to enter can contact Water Star Models at 643-1574.

The 2006/2007 Costa Rican Circuito Nacional de Surf has already hosted three similar weekends in beaches along the Pacific coast of Costa Rica, attracting as many as 135 competitors.

Most recently, Jairo Pérez, the young surfer from the Cantón de Garabito, stole the show by winning both the boys and junior categories at Playa Tamarindo.

Sporting Event Needs Assistance

FlagMag.com Flag Football magazine will be hosting an International Flag Football Tournament, Jan. 26-29th in Santa Ana. Men and women teams from Canada, U.S.A., Mexico, Venezuela, Honduras and Panamá will take part. We are seeking host families and volunteers for the event. Anyone interested, please contact

Jim Zimolka at 506-336-3437 or e-mail at JimZimolka@Flagmag.com

The latest top sports news	Sports news from VOA
Sports feeds are disabled on archived pages.

A.M. Costa Rica Second newspage
Home	Tourism	Calendar	Classifieds	Entertainment	Real estate	Rentals	Sports	About us
San José, Costa Rica, Wednesday, Jan. 3, 2007, Vol. 7, No. 2