Costa Rica, with a growing population of over 4.3 million people with about 60% of them living in the urban areas, has made significant progress over the last decade in expanding the coverage of water services to the non-rural areas.

Approximately 99% of the urban population is now connected to water supply systems. The level of coverage in rural areas is lower; only about 92% of the 1.7 million rural inhabitants are connected to public water supply systems.

In most regions of the country, the water production capacity is almost equal to the current demand, so the risk of facing a deficit in the near future is considerable. In fact, in several places throughout the country there are shortages and rationing of water.

But there has been progress both here and in the rest of the world. Just this week Anthony Lake, the Executive Director of UNICEF, has issued a press release with the good news that the world has achieved the goal of cutting in half the number of persons in the world without water. As described in the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals (MDG) this was to have been accomplished by 2015, but has been done three years ahead of time. This is very important achievement, as more than 3,000 children per day were dying of diarrhea and other conditions caused by drinking impure water. The MDG is a joint effort shared by WHO, UNICEF, and some 190 member nations. Given this rate of progress, it is estimated that by 2015, 92% of the world population will have access to drinking water.

Presently, Costa Rica’s water access systems are very close to the world average. A recent report from the nation’s water laboratory (Laboratorio Nacional de Aguas PDF) indicates a 90% coverage rate of potable drinking water.

Of course, San José is the province with the most coverage (92.1%), followed by Heredia (88.1%), Cartago (82.6%), Alajuela (78.1%), Puntarenas (77.5%), Guanacaste (76.2%) and Limon (76.0%).

The Ministry of Health (MINSALUD) is the lead agency which is responsible for oversight of the water sector. Another agency, the Regulatory Authority for Public Services (ARESEP), created in 1999, is responsible for economic regulation, including pricing and monitoring and control of the efficiency and quality of services, among others. The Ministry of Environment, Energy and Telecommunications (MINAE), is responsible for the management of water resources in Costa Rica. Other ministries also play a role in water management, and sometimes roles and responsibilities overlap.

Presently, there is a proposal to commercialize water – as well as natural gas and petroleum — on a global scale. Its proponents claim that water simply is not being used efficiently. Undeniably, such is the case in Costa Rica. The level of non-revenue water (“water loss”) of the Costa Rican water companies is high since most of the systems are operating at losses of up to 50%, which reflects the high degree of inefficiency. If the water were globalized, the idea is that the urban areas of the world, who were the first to have functional potable water supplies, would now help subsidize the rural areas in their access to potable water.

In Costa Rica, the water and sewer rates are approved by the regulator ARESEP. Revenues from water and sanitation do not cover the costs of operation and maintenance, so the sector’s financial situation is precarious.

AyA has not received any compensation from the government for taking the role it plays as the leading provider of subsidies for the rural sector. This situation represents a huge financial burden for AyA, and the water rates for rural areas will not allow cost recovery because of the much higher costs of constructing distribution systems and providing access to water in rural areas.

There are even more problems in rural areas of Costa Rica (such as Playa Uvita) hosting extensive tourist resorts having a high demand for water for frequent guest showers, restaurants, and swimming pools. This is a good example of a disproportional distribution system combined with poor access, something that drains the water availability to a select few tourists while leaving little for the rest of the year round residents.

In high erosion areas, however, great strides in erosion control and soil conservation are being made as knowledge about organic filters and buffers becomes more widespread. Planting three rows of vetiver, for example will effectively slow erosion and will also filter runoff so that it arrives to the rivers very much cleaner than it otherwise would have been. Vetiver is a hardy tall grass with roots that extend as much as three meters into the soil, binding it and holding it together. Maní is also being used extensively, as it is a low plant with a dense root network that also carpets and holds the soil together and slows runoff.

During the last five years, labors to clean up and repair river channels have picked up drastically, with widespread application of rocks packed in containers made of galvanized wire mesh place along river banks to armor them and reduce erosion.

Thus, there are many different efforts in play to develop and maintain a better water supply and to conserve water, both here in Costa Rica and throughout the world. Costa Rica seems to be blessed with water abundance; the need is to manage, distribute, conserve, and use it more efficiently.