5.000 Limón Residents Still Without Water
The blaze at the chemical plant in Moín, Limón, on December 12, is still affecting some 5.000 areas residents who are and will continue to be without drinking water for the next month.

The Químicos Holanda fire took more than 12 hours to be brought under control by firefighters, spewing a cloud of toxic smoke to more than 30 metres height.

The Acueductos y Alcantarillados (AyA) - the water and sewer utility - has yet to re-establish 100% service to the area, leaving several small communities without drinking water, supplying the area with water trucks.

Ricardo Sancho, president of the AyA, said that if the work cannot be carried out as planned, those residents could be without drinking water for even longer. Sanco added that originally 20.000 residents were affected with no drinking water, the Aya being able to restore service to 15.000.

The AyA is having problems restoring service to areas with high grounds. Sancho said that the contamination by the fire is in the canals and not the water source, as the AyA works to clean the canals and maybe even having to build new ones in the event the contamination cannot be cleaned up.

Working with the AyA are experts from the ministro de Ambiente y Energía (Environment and Energy), the Universidad de Costa Rica ad the Universidad Nacional, who have begun an investigation to determine the magniture of the damage to the environment in the area.

Roberto Dobles, Environment minister, said that an international expert in decontamination will soon arrive in Costa Rica and make an analysis and recommend the steps to be taken.

Dobles praised the work of the firefighters not only in bringing the fire under control in record time, but also for removing some 300 metric tonnes - an amount equivalent to 15 tanker trucks - of dangerous chemicals that was at the Químicos Holanda plant.