<
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2023/dec/13/we-used-to-give-hope-to-the-world-is-costa-ricas-green-halo-fading>
"From his home, José Sanchez looks out at the mountain Cerro Pasquí, in Cartago
province, Costa Rica, across ever-expanding fields of cabbage and potato. It
wasn’t always like this. Sanchez, 68, recalls a time when the hills were
covered in forest, not just farmland for cattle and vegetable crops.
With the rise in crops has come an increase in the use of agrochemicals.
Laboratory tests have confirmed that residues of chlorothalonil, a fungicide
banned in Europe – and in Costa Rica in recent times – have seeped into the
springs of Santa Rosa de Oreamuno, a small agricultural district in the
north-eastern hills of Central Valley, and the neighbouring town, Cipreces,
affecting a population of nearly 9,000 people.
A truck has been delivering water to Santa Rosa and Cipreces since the end of
2022 because the tap water is no longer safe to drink. But, as the person in
charge of managing the water supply in the district, Sanchez fears a larger
problem: that the chemical contamination could extend to an entire mountainous
strip, and affect 65,000 people.
“I don’t think about myself but about my children and grandchildren, because
they will suffer the greater problems,” he says. “We say that Costa Rica is a
country that respects the environment, but it’s not really so.”
Even with the new ban on chlorothalonil, water and farmland pollution will
remain two of the most pressing environmental challenges facing Costa Rica. The
country has one of the highest intensities of pesticide use in the world, and,
despite being rich in natural resources, the proportion of its population
served by the water supply fell below 90% in 2022.
For decades, pioneering policies in forest protection and conservation have
burnished the international image of a sustainable Central American country.
But longstanding challenges remain, including high fossil fuel consumption and
urban growth."
Via Doug Senko.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
