| Development
continues to trump preservation and restoration in most of Costa Rica, though
here at Lake Arenal, some fingers are helping to plug the dike against the flood
of greed. A committee of Fuentes Verdes Ecological Association met at Tilaran's
Las Lenitas Restaurant on August 10 to work on what they were calling a Greenprint,
a set of detailed instructions assisting individual home builders, developers,
and contractors to understand and follow all the rules and techniques for building
legally and non-destructively in the region. They will be making their first presentation
to government representatives on August 28. On
the other side of the lake, dogged anti-pollutionist Al Almeida seems to have
gotten the attention of someone in President Arias' office as well as of the major
Spanish-language newspaper, La Nacion, where a reporter is planning to interview
Al about continuing pollution of the lake from inadequate septic systems. Not
having Steve Case's money, Al has not yet gotten the attention of President Arias
himself, unlike the incredibly rich AOL founder, a billionaire-to-be. Case has
gotten major face-time with the Nobel Prize winner despite the fact that his mammoth
project on the Guanacaste coast at long but narrow, heavily forested Punta Cacique
has been blocked by SETENA because of an inadequate environmental study (Tico
Times, August 10). Meanwhile, Case is talking the environmental talk if so far
stumbling on the walk. To compensate for his gold-plated golf course, celebrity
tennis center, hotels, condos, and houses, he is going to plant a million trees,
establish a village for the 2000 necessary employees, and build a de-salinization
plant, a facility about which SETENA is particularly skeptical. Bearing in | mind
some of the hideous problems in the Central Valley, Arias might ask him also to
build a state-of-the-art recycling center, a state-of-the-art dump to handle all
the garbage from the millionaires and workers, and a very large sewage treatment
plant to help supply water for his golf course. The million trees will need water,
too. Where is there quite a bit of water? Oh, yeah, Lake Arenal. If he would leave
alone the mature trees already thickly foresting beautiful Punta Cacique, he wouldn't
need to talk about his million baby trees. Meanwhile,
back at the lake, things are looking up from our reverse perspective. Our few
developers, unlike those cashing in on the crazy coast, are not so optimistic
as to attempt multi-story condo buildings, and there has been no word of new developments
in more than a year. But we could benefit further if only President Arias would
pass through Tilaran on his way to Rohrmoser, and direct our municipal authorities,
including the new architect, to stop issuing construction permits in projects
lacking proper septic design and to inspect the septic installation once the building
is completed. Al Almeida says septic design and inspection are still being ignored
by the local authorities.. Recent
visitors told us on the south side of Lake Arenal that northside residents had
expressed to them the inferiority of the south side. Again. What fun. We will
consider the relative merits of the big-enders and the small-enders - I mean the
northsiders and the southsiders - next time. For instance, the south side has
more cows, but the north side has more snakes. Which is better? Discuss. Of course,
we're all fortunate to be at Lake Arenal. |