Pollutants have been found in the Palo Verde park in Costa Rica.

The tribunal for the Preservation of the Environment has ordered IDA (Agrarian Development Institute) and Senara (National Irrigation System) to pay a sum of $6 million or more because of the damages they caused to the flora and fauna of Palo Verde. According to the tribunal, the park received excessive amounts of contaminated water containing residue of insecticides. The water came trough the canals used to irrigate the crops under the care of IDA in regions surrounding the Park.

The situation provoked an increase in the level of water in the lake, with over 3,000 hectares flooded with poisonous water. The president of the Tribunal for the Preservation of the Environment, Jose Lino Chavez, declared yesterday that this could be counted as one of the worst ecological disasters of the country. He also added that although the case had originally been opened 4 years ago, the contaminated waters carried on pouring into the park.

IDA and Senara will appear before the tribunal this April 29th. The administrator of Senara insists that the damages were caused by natural changes that occurred in the region. IDA also refused to take any kind of responsibility for the ecological damages, and said that due to some changes in the ecosystem, the damages had supposedly resolved themselves as if by magic.

According to Eugenio Gonzales, director of the Organization for Tropical Studies (OET), what took place in Palo Verde is yet further proof of the complete lack of communication and organization between certain organizations and the State. “We have seen laziness, a complete lack of action, slowness to react and a bad attitude and nature is paying a very high price for this, he said”. Angel Guevara, Administrator for the Conservation of the Tempisque Area, affirms that the discharge of contaminated water in the area is absolutely illegal, and puts it at great risks.

About Palo Verde

The Palo Verde Biological Station is located in Guanacaste on the slopes of the Pacific Ocean, with 20,000 hectares of dry forest and wetland running along the Rio Tempisque that flows into the Gulf of Nicoya. Along with Lomas Barbudal Biological Reserve, Palo Verde is considered to be one of the sites with the greatest ecological diversity in Costa Rica, with over 13 different habitats including mangrove, swamps, fresh and salt water marshes, lowland and limestone forests, evergreen forests and secondary forests. Palo Verde and Lomas Barbudal comprise one of the very few protected areas in the country to present rocky formations and lowland forests interacting with excessive wetlands, making the region a true wonder of Nature.

This post's rating:

Related Stories

Filed under: Costa Rica News on March 27th, 2008