What do we Think About Water? Public Perception of the Current Situation of Water Resources in Costa Rica: an Indicator of Water Understanding and Management

Abstract

The objective of this research was to determine the level of knowledge and perception of the Costa Rican population about water for human consumption, general concepts, the impact of human activities, the occurrence of extreme events and water management and governance. In 2016, a quantitative-descriptive study of population perception was carried out through a semi-structured survey in which 800 people were consulted, through calls to landlines. It was found that the Costa Ricans: a) perceived that water is a public good and that there is greater availability of water than there is in reality, b) 22 % indicated having supply problems, infrastructure and/or water quality, c) are aware of the contamination of water bodies and willing to pay more for the treatment of wastewater, d) perceived a negative impact due to floods and landslides and, e) 55 % agreed that water for consumption comes from wells and springs, but only 12 % and 36 % had a general notion of what an aquifer and groundwater is, respectively. It is concluded that education programs should include general concepts on groundwater, water management and governance and that the willingness to pay more for wastewater treatment should be taken into consideration by the institutions for the improvement of environmental sanitation.

Discriminant model and hydrogeochemical processes for characterizing preferential flow paths in four interconnected volcanic aquifers in Costa Rica

“…This multilayered system includes the Upper Barva (UB), Lower Barva (LB), Upper Colima (UC), and Lower Colima (LC). Despite the importance of groundwater for public supply in Costa Rica (Madrigal-Solís et al 2020a), there is scarce information on the impact of the hydrogeochemical processes on water quality. Preliminary studies on groundwater hydrogeochemical characterization have been developed in the northwestern region of Valle Central (Central Valley;Madrigal-Solís et al 2017), the southern part of Valle Central (Vargas and Mora 1999), the eastern-central region of the country (Madrigal-Solís et al 2020b), and the Central Pacific coast (Sánchez-Gutiérrez et al 2020).…”

Gestión de recursos hídricos: una revisión internacional de literatura

“…Debido a la escasez del agua cada vez más crítica y la necesidad de mantener el balance hídrico, Madrigal et al (2020), sostienen que las personas están dispuestas a pagar más por el servicio o suministro del agua que utilizan. Por otro lado, la deficiente e insuficiente recaudación por tarifas de agua, genera problemas para cubrir gastos de estudios, programas, proyectos y obras relacionados al recurso hídrico en la cuenca (Gomes, Meiguins y Martins, 2020).…”

“…Las personas necesitan el agua para su subsistencia, es por ello que tienen la prioridad de su uso para consumo. En relación a ello, Madrigal et al (2020) evidencian que, ante la escasez de agua, algunas personas se mostraron menos dispuestas a facilitar la distribución equitativa del líquido vital, a pesar que el 98% de las personas encuestadas consideró que el agua es de todos, el 93% de las personas considera que estaría dispuesta a compartir el recurso ante una posible escasez y el 88% considera que el recurso agua es agotable y son conscientes de su vulnerabilidad. Asimismo, D'Ambrosio et al (2020) manifiestan que las actividades de la ciudadanía dañan las cuencas, requiriendo la rehabilitación de las aguas superficiales, subterráneas, suelo y sub suelo.…”