A Walk in Heredia

Today was a shorter day for us and our students - two quizzes in the morning and two short lectures, then we all went our separate ways for the afternoon. Tonight, Pat and I will be the dinner guests of Nandayure Leon and her family. She is the daughter of Nandayure Valenzuela, of UNA, who so gratiously helped me with my 2008 visit to UNA. Nandayure V. has been a guest in our West Chester home. Both of these women are gratious and kind and I am honored to count them among my friends.

So...I too had a free afternoon today and I decided to spend about an hour of it walking around the community near our hotel. We are on a pretty steep hillside and I decided to walk to the top, hoping to have some great views of the mountains beyond. I wasn't disappointed, but the clouds were moving in and my view wasn't as clear as I would have liked. Let me describe what I saw.

First, this is clearly a mixed-use residential part of the city of Heredia (population about 80,000). The streets are lined, literally right up to the asphalt, with high iron fences, some of which are topped with razor concertina wire. Clearly, Costa Ricans see their home security as a personal responsibility. Nandayure V. had commented on the lack of such defenses during her visit to our home in West Chester, and she wondered aloud how we could ever feel safe in such an unsecure setting; our house is set well back from the road, in a heavily wooded 2.5 acre lot. We consider ourselves so lucky to have so much nice, open space! Costa Rican homes are small and very private by comparison, even when they are stacked one upon another.

Another observation I made is that sewage is a real problem. With my students I've been discussing the difference between gray water (drainage from sinks, showers, laundry etc.) versus black water (toilet discharge containing human body waste). Throughout this community, gray water is discharged directly to open ditches which run to nearby streams untreated. Clearly, these waters are laden with nutrients because the ditches are rich with biofilm growth (algae and bacteria), resembling many of the surfaces found inside the tanks of sewage treatment plants back home. During our tour yesterday of the recycling facility, I also learned that while most homes do have septic systems there is no enforcement for maintenance. In my home community (West Goshen Township, Pennsylvania) I must inspect and pump my system once each two years. It is pretty reasonable to expect, then, that a lot of these systems in Heredia have failed and are discharging untreated black water into the open ditches. This is a serious public health problem - introducing increased risk of transmitting infectious disease - and it is exacerbated by rapid population growth in Costa Rica's Central Valley.

Many of these sewers are also heavily laden with trash. While the communities do recycle (see yesterday's post) and routinely collect trash, some of it still escapes collection and makes its way into the waterways. Sometime it creates a small dam in the trench leading to pools of gray-black, smelly water. I suppose that during a heavy rain much of this gets washed into the streams and rivers with the rainwater runoff, only to build up again following a few dry days.

Costa Ricans are environmentally aware - perhaps very much more than many of their Central American neighbors - but in this small city there is a lot of room for improvement.

- Chuck