Q COSTARICA — Residents and business owners in Mora have been without a reliable water supply for at least two weeks, just as they need to wash their hands frequently due to the Salmonella outbreak in the canton’s principal town, Ciudad Colón.
Forty-seven people in Ciudad Colón have fallen ill with Salmonella, and one person has already died, and another is hospitalized due to the outbreak, which appears to have started late last week and has mostly affected children and seniors, according to Dr. Gabriela Morales, a spokesperson for the regional health authority.
“With everything that’s happening here in Colón and the outbreak, the Ministry of Health is telling us to wash our hands, but where are we supposed to get water? Tell me: How are we supposed to wash our hands if there’s no water?” asked rhetorically Zulma Villaseñor, an affected resident.
The woman stated that the situation is forcing many families to buy bottled water to meet their basic needs.
Villaseñor confirmed that water outages continue to occur in different parts of the canton.
“There are still shortages, and they’re cutting it off every few days. The biggest problem is in the San Bosco area, where they’ve been dealing with this issue for many years,” she said.
She also pointed out that these service interruptions are nothing new for those who live in the area.
“I’ve lived in Ciudad Colón for 22 years, and there’s always a problem like this in this area, with weeks going by without water,” she added.
Business Owners Report Losses
The situation is also hitting local businesses hard, which say they’ve been affected by the outbreak linked to a chicken vendor in the canton.
Some business owners said that while their water hasn’t been shut off, hardly any customers have come in lately.
“With the Salmonella outbreak, I think all businesses have been affected. This whole thing started last week, and to be honest, I had zero sales last week,” Laura Arias, who owns a local coffee shop in the center of Ciudad Colón, told Crhoy.com.
The business owner believes social media has instilled fear among consumers.
“People start spreading a lot of misinformation, and then they go around saying not to buy anything from any business in Ciudad Colón,” she stated.
“Last week, from Monday to Friday, I didn’t have a single customer. On Saturday, only four people came, and on Sunday, another four,” she said.
Arias added that he hasn’t had any customers this week either.
AyA quiet on the matter. For their part, despite the health emergency in the canton, the water and sewer utility, Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados (AyA), has not responded to calls regarding the disruption and the measures implemented to restore service.
The canton of Mora is facing a complex health situation due to a Salmonella outbreak preliminarily linked to a commercial establishment in Ciudad Colón. Authorities have not yet released the name of the business.
Health authorities have linked the outbreak to food consumption at the establishment under investigation.
Schools in the area have been advised to monitor students for symptoms, and parents are being urged to keep their children home at the first sign of illness.
The Ministry of Health is urging people to be extra careful with food handling and handwashing. But for a lot of residents and business owners, that’s exactly where the problem lies—frequent water outages make it nearly impossible to follow these health guidelines or keep things safe.