Seven local aqueducts in the Central Pacific region of Costa Rica are now functioning with solar energy, thanks to support and funding from a number of institutions including the Costa Rica-U.S. Foundation (CRUSA).

The panels are expected to allow the rural water supplies save up to 50 percent on their electric costs, thus freeing up much needed funds to invest in repairs and improvements, said the Costa Rican Center for Environmental and Natural Resources Law (Cedarena) which manages the project.

“Water, in an area as dry as the Central Pacific, is key to the development of commercial and tourist activities,” said Virginia Reyes, project coordinator.

The project is a collaborative effort between Cedarena and is developed within the framework of the Alcanzando Escala (Achieving Scale) programs of  CRUSA, the Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF) and the Costa Rican government program called Tejiendo Desarrollo (Weaving Development).

The funds were provided to seven Associations of Water Supply and Sewerage Systems (known in Spanish as ASADAS) in the Paquera – Cóbano area whose water distribution systems operate with electric pumps.

The ASADAS of Pueblo Nuevo, Río Grande, Bajos Negros, Paquera, Gigante, Valle Azul and San Isidro, located on the northern Nicoya Peninsula and across the Gulf of Nicoya from Puntarenas, provide water to 1,079 customers.

Prior to the solar system, the aqueducts were spending about 70 percent of their income to pay for electricity.

“With this project, not only do we make the ASADAS sustainable organizations, using clean energy for the pumping of water, but we are helping them to improve the supply to their communities, because now what is saved in electric costs can be invested in infrastructure,” said Michelle Coffey, CRUSA Foundation representative.

The initiative implemented in Paquera and Cóbano is part of a larger project to transform 15 ASADAS into sustainable organizations using energy innovation. The second phase of the project involves installing solar panels at eight other rural water systems on the Nicoya peninsula.

Cedarena works nationally to “promote changes in environmental policies towards integrated and participatory environmental management, and to forge an equitable and inclusive society that enjoys a healthy and ecologically balanced environment,” according to their website.

“ASADAS cover 25 percent of the population of the country, so it is important to work on strengthening and modernizing them,” added Yamileth Astorga, executive president of AyA.

Accanzando Escala is a program administered jointly by the CRUSA Foundation, the Multilateral Investment Fund of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the Government of the Republic to support the country’s national development strategy (DET). The joint initiative will benefit 300 micro- and small business and farmers, in addition to 1,150 people from the private and public sector, 10 municipalities, and 11 governmental entities.