Rural communities use solar power to pump water in Costa Rica

More than 4,000 people in eight rural communities in Nicoya and the Isla de Chira, Costa Rica, have are now using solar panels to help power water distribution.

The project, financed by the Costa Rica USA Foundation for Cooperation (CRUSA) and implemented by the Center for Environmental and Natural Resource Law (CEDARENA), has installed 124 solar panels to help rural water management associations, or ASADAS, reduce their electrical costs. Electricity to pump water is one of the highest costs the associations incur.

The beneficiaries of the project include La Montañita (48 beneficiaries,) Las Pozas (85), Dulce Nombre (187), Cuajiniquil (77), Corral de Piedra (100), Los Hondores (96), El Flor (95), El Piave (67) and Isla de Chira (500). The solar panels were officially inaugurated during a ceremony in El Flor on Sunday.

“Access to potable water is a key factor in community development,” said Michelle Cofffey, executive delegate of the Costa Rica USA Foundation. “At CRUSA, we have supported rural aqueducts on their path to becoming more sustainable, both environmentally and economically, in order to be more efficient and provide better service to the families they supply.”

The CRUSA-CEDARENA project has also beneffited approximately 7,850 people in communtiies in the province of Puntarenas, including Bajos Negros, Gigante, Río Grande, Paquera, Valle Azul, San Isidro and Pueblo Nuevo, as well as La Fortuna de Casitas, Nicoya.

Learn more about this project in this video about Paquera communities: