Photo by Giordano Ciampini

With lots to do and little time to do it before the heavy rains arrive to make the work difficult… this is the state of the Nosara River dike and dredging project, which received the order to begin the first phase last Monday, April 24th. 

Looking for a solution to the flooding of streets and homes that result from the Nosara River overflowing during rainy season, in 2007 the National Emergencies Committee (CNE) invested ¢140 million colones ($280,000) in the construction of a dike, but the first flood waters destroyed the work.

Since then, and under the order of the Constitutional Court since 2009, the CNE has considered options to solve the problem and in late 2011 announced that it would start the work in stages budgeted at 300 million colones ($600,000) for each stage, with a total of 1.2 billion colones ($2,400,000).

The first phase is being done by the construction company HHB Consa, which will start work in the sector near the Nosara airstrip up to Rancho Tico restaurant. Rodolfo Herrera, representative of HHB Consa, explained that they will start the topographical work together with SENARA (Servicio Nacional de Aguas Subterráneas Riego y Avenamiento) to do the final marking of the new trajectory that will modify the depth of the river.

According to Ricardo Chinchilla, SENARA engineer in charge of the project, the stage should last 120 days but with rainy season coming they want to use more machinery to do it faster. The stage includes building 900 meters of dike and digging out 1200 meters.

Marcos Avila, president of the Nosara Integral Development Association (ADIN), explained that the dike will not be in the river but 50 meters from the riverbed parallel to the road so the river won’t wash it away and it will prevent the river from invading homes. “This is going to work very well here,” he affirmed.

He also mentioned that the material that is taken from the river will be used in the roads and not for the dike since it isn’t suitable for construction.

Once the first stage is finished, they will move on with the second stage continuing from Rancho Tico to the Mala Noche Creek. Finally, the third part of the work will start from Mala Noche creek to Las Juntas River.

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