Learning to Care
about Costa Rica's Water
Issues
By Jessica Warnock,
Examiner.com
Last Saturday Costa
Rican’s national
newspaper, La Nación,
reported that only nine
of the 81 subdivisions
of the country receive
water of optimal
quality. Such were the
findings of a recent
study regarding equal
access to potable water
and its relation to
development and health
in Costa Rica.
Of the remaining
subdivisions, 26
received the second
highest rating of medium
to high unequal access
to water, and a
frightening majority of
46 subdivisions received
the lowest rating of
very high unequal access
to water. Therefore, of
the approximately 4.1
million people that live
in Costa Rica, 1.8
receive water of poor
quality.
According the La Nación,
The study evaluated five
variables: population
that receives water in
their homes, potability,
quality-control
programs, treatment and
disinfection of liquids,
and the number of
service operators.
The study found, not
surprisingly, that the
areas with the worst
access to potable water
are also the poorest
areas of the country.
Study abroad is more
than just traveling to
beaches on the weekend
and remembering not to
drink the water. In
order to make a study
abroad experience
worthwhile, you have to
learn to live in the
country. This
integration into the
country entails a
preoccupation of the
nation’s issues. For
example, I have learned
that poverty and
inequality are two of
the most pressing
concerns of Latin
America as a whole.
As a foreigner and
especially as an
American, it is easy to
shake your head at
sub-developed areas of
the world. You can feel
annoyed, confused, and
wonder why everything is
not more “organized”
like it is back home.
However, it is important
to realize that you are
no longer comfortably at
home, and instead of
becoming angered by
these situations, it is
more beneficial to try
to understand them.
Certainly, having safe
water to drink in your
home in the States is
not a fathomable issue,
so when you do read
about it happening in
another country, the
issue does not sink in
because it is not
something we have ever
had to deal with.
However, when you live
in a developing country
and you see children
bathing in a dirty
river, the issue becomes
real. When you do forget
that you should not
drink the water and
spend the next two weeks
with major intestinal
issues, reality sets in.
Concerning these
aspects, study abroad is
not always fun. You are
often faced with real
life images you would be
hard pressed to
encounter as you are
leaving Target in
American suburbia.
However, I believe these
issues and difficulties
are potentially the most
important
characteristics of
studying abroad.
In order to be life-long
affected by the
experience in your host
country, you have to
turn off your Facebook
for a minute and pick up
a local newspaper to
find out what it going
on in the country. Only
then, after you truly
begin to care what is
happening, will your
study abroad experience
not only positively
affect you, but rather
the country in which you
lived.
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