CR BIZ
by Rick Philps
Water Availability WHY IS IT A MAJOR CONCERN WHEN BUILDING?
W
BUSILDING CR
hen considering building a home in Costa Rica, you might expect water availability to be the least of your concerns. After all, it’s a tropical country with bountiful rainfall in the wet season. How could there be any issues relating to potable water supply? Unfortunately, in many parts of the country, this cannot be taken for granted. The availability of potable water will equal, if not exceed, your concern for a suitable building location, particularly in the dryer parts of the country.
Unfortunately, many otherwise suitable building sites fail for the want of legal access to potable water.
The requirement to conduct legal due diligence regarding potable water availability in a chosen building site cannot be overstated. Proprietary rights vested in the state In Costa Rica, the proprietary right to manage and allocate the country’s potable water reserves is vested in the state. The main governmental water regulatory authority is known as AyA — short for “Acueductos y Alcantarillados”, or in English, Water and Sewer Systems. This is the mother water regulatory body for the management and distribution of water in Costa Rica.