AyA gets authorization to spend $2 million to treat arsenic contaminated water

August 22^nd, 2013 (InsideCostaRica.com) The Comptroller General of the Republic (CGR) has authorized the Costa Rican Institute of Aqueducts and Sewers (AyA) to spend $2 million to contract outside vendors to treat water supplies that have been contaminated with arsenic for the past two years.  The affected communities are in Guanacaste and the Northern Zone.

AyA received permission to put to bid the “design, supply, installation, commissioning, operation, and technology transfer of seven arsenic removal systems” for a total of ¢ 1 billion (about $2 million).  The approval was made as part of an extraordinary budget approval.  AyA made the request on July 24^th.

Costa Rica’s Constitutional Court (Sala IV) recently ruled that residents in 23 communities affected by the arsenic contamination could sue the state for costs and damages caused by consumption of the contaminated water, after AyA claimed earlier that the problem was not the fault of the institution.