Large amounts of garbage and sewage discharged into the river Torres make it the most polluted San Jose. The Torres river runs across San José’s north side, crossing densely populated communities like downtown San José, Tibás, La Sabana and Pava.
On the south side, the Tiribí and Maria Aguilar rivers, though not as contaminated, are experiencing growth in contamination levels.
This according to report by the Laboratorio de Análisis Ambiental de la Universidad Nacional (UNA) – Laboratory of Environmental Analysis (UNA) National University and the Municipalidad de San José (Municipality of San José), revealing that 100% of the rivers in the canton of San José have pollutions levels from moderate to severe.
The report explains that pollution levels have risen in the last three years.
Increased pollution was also found in creeks and streams, especially the waters that pass by illegal settlements.
Costa Rica must do something about the solid waste problem immediately. Not only is this pollution problem unhealthy and unsightly to the people who live here, but it is also detrimental to the tourism industry. Without expat and tourist dollars, the economy here would collapse completely. Something must be done to generate more money to improve the infrastructure. Since we’ve already borrowed ourselves into a deep pit of debt, that inevitably leads us to increased tax collection.
If the government used tax assessors for real estate instead of relying of self-(under)reporting, the country would stand to increase its tax base considerably. If the government put its efforts into collecting taxes due instead of trying to come up with new tax schemes that have no hope of passing through the legislative assembly, revenues would increase considerably. Of course, even these ideas would meet resistance from government officials who, as we have seen repeatedly, are among the many who under-report the values of their properties and fail to pay taxes due.