Solving Rural Water Exclusion: Challenges and Limits to Co-Management in Costa Rica

Abstract

Co-management has been promoted as a solution to expanding rural water access. In Central America, community water associations provide water service to 25% of the population, but poor water quality continues to leave many residents at risk of waterborne illness. In Costa Rica, dominant prescriptions for addressing these shortcomings include improvements to the institutional framework and policy reform. In this article, we evaluate the role of institutional arrangements, community involvement, and human capital in ASADA (Administrative Associations for Aqueducts and Sewers, by Spanish acronym) performance. We argue that while national community water management programs can be effective in expanding rural water access, there are limits to the indiscriminate implementation of co-management to address rural= urban water disparity. More specifically, we find that community-level factors impact ASADA performance, and thus need to be considered in policy decisions about whether co-management itself is necessarily the most appropriate approach.

Contributions of Organizational Levels in Community Management Models of Water Supply in Rural Communities: Cases from Brazil and Ecuador

“…In Peru, "Juntas Administradoras de Servicios de Saneamiento" (JASS) operate and maintain water systems individually, relying exclusively on support delivered by local governments [45]. Rural communities in Costa Rica follow a similar outline, where "Asociaciones Administradoras de Sistemas de Acueductos y Alcantarillados Sanitarios" (ASADAS) are responsible for water systems and have not assembled to create organizational levels beyond the first [46,47].…”

Challenges to Water Security along the “Emerald Coast”: A Political Ecology of Local Water Governance in Nicaragua

“…As one resident described it, "there is no more water anywhere, and the poor people are the ones who suffer" (23 March 2015). This hardship takes on discrete significance in national contexts like Nicaragua's (and many other Latin American countries) where responsibilities for rural water management are shouldered primarily by residents themselves, albeit oftentimes in coordination with state agencies and officials [48,[78][79][80].…”

Gobernanza de aguas subterráneas, conflictos socioambientales y alternativas: experiencias en Costa Rica

“…Aproximadamente el 33 por ciento de la población costarricense recibe agua de una ASADA (Dobbin y Sarathy, 2015). Estas organizaciones se amparan en dos cuerpos legales: por un lado, en la Ley de Asociaciones, Ley No.…”

“…El AyA, de acuerdo con el artículo 36.7 del Reglamento de las Asociaciones Administradoras de Sistemas de Acueductos y Alcantarillados Comunales, debe capacitar a las ASADAS en temas técnicos, administrativos y legales. No obstante, hasta ahora la formación que ha dado ha sido, en la mayoría de los casos, muy limitada (Dobbin y Sarathy, 2015). Algunos investigadores aseguran Anuario de Estudios Centroamericanos, Universidad de Costa Rica, 43: 393-418, 2017 / ISSN: 0377-7316 que el involucramiento de estas organizaciones podría ser mucho más efectivo si se les diera una apropiada capacitación (FANCA, 2006).…”