Social conditions

The basin's population has traditionally maintained strong social and commercial ties across the border and it is common to find family relationships among them. However, as in many parts of the region, population growth over the last 20 years on both sides of the border brings in “outsiders” and change—not all of it positive. All quality-of-life indicators are lower than their respective national averages in both parts of the basin . The cantons of Upala, Los Chiles, Guatusos, and La Cruz in Costa Rica have significantly lower social development indicators in housing, education, electrification, sewage, communications, and health—the last even deteriorating in recent years. While the Nicaraguan portion of the basin has 18.4% of the national population, it also has 36% of the poor population and 43.2% of the nation's indigents.

Costa Rican Sector: Costa Rica’s “Social Development Index” is based on a number of variables including education infrastructure, access to special education programs, infant mortality, deaths between the ages of zero and five relative to the general death rate, height of the population entering the first grade, average monthly use of electricity and births to unwed mothers. The index can vary between 0 and 100 with the higher numbers indicating better social conditions. For the cantons in the SJRB, index figures average 28.7 with a high of 45.5 and a low of 8.9. Four of the cantons fell below 30 and three were above 40 (Table 3).

Table 3: Social Development Index for Costa Rican Sector of the SJRB.

Because of job scarcity in Nicaragua, laborers tend to migrate from Nicaragua to Costa Rica, where more work opportunities exist. This flow of migrants is highest during the sugar cane harvest periods and, since many of these become permanent immigrants, an agreement between both countries regulates the phenomenon.

Still, the population in the Costa Rican sector has doubled in the last 20 years. Now, the rural population represents 85% of the total and the economically active population is 44%. The primary sector, where payment tends to be made according to productivity, employs nearly 73% of these. In the last decades, except for agriculture, real salaries have tended to decrease and they are seldom sufficient to satisfy basic needs.

Population in rural areas is scattered and the majority lack basic services and sanitation. Ninety-nine percent of the homes in population centers have public water supply. By contrast, only 62% of the homes in rural areas have water supply service. Water in the SJRB is supplied through storage tanks and a distribution system, springs, drilled and hand dug wells, rain catchments (cisterns), or directly from a river. Only the first source is of guaranteed quality; the remaining sources are risky at best.

Sixty-one percent of the population uses septic tanks and the remainder use latrines and cesspools. Any of these systems are susceptible to overflow during flooding with the rainy season (especially in the low-lying areas) causing contamination of wells, streams and rivers and resulting in intestinal and other parasitic illnesses, and propagation of disease vectors that can cause epidemics of dengue fever, and malaria.

Solid waste collection services are available to just 32% of the urban population and 0% of the rural population. Consequently, almost all solid waste eventually ends up in the river.

Basic education is limited—there are approximately 640 primary and 40 intermediate level education centers in the entire Costa Rican portion of the basin. Because of this, and the need to begin work at an early age, the literacy rate is 84.6%, high for many parts of the world, but low for Costa Rica.

Health coverage is also deficient with just 24 confinement centers (clinics and hospitals) for a population of nearly 290,000 inhabitants. The area has additional rural health posts, children's centers that offer full health attention and health education and nutrition centers that provide outpatient services.

Nicaraguan Sector: A significant population increase has also occurred in the Nicaraguan sector in the last 30 years, from 300,000 inhabitants in 1971 to an estimated 780,000 currently. Unemployment and underemployment rates in the basin are higher than in the rest of the nation. Nearly one-half of the population is under 15 years of age.

All social indicators show significantly low values (Table 4). Approximately 93% of the urban population and 39% of the rural population are provided with potable water service— mainly from groundwater sources because of the population centers east of Lake Nicaragua. Water is provided through urban and rural piped distribution systems and manually pumped wells. A reduction in service can occur during intensely dry periods.

Twenty-two percent of the urban population is served by sewage disposal systems. Much of the rural population uses latrines—between 38 and 79% depending on the area, although the San Juan River Department has a coverage rate of just 17%. Solid waste is collected only in urban areas, but is limited with respect to equipment and efficient operation.

The average literacy rate is approximately 80%, but in the rural areas it reaches only 55%. Health services are deficient; the average ratio is 710 inhabitants/bed but, again, the San Juan River Department, at 1,362 inhabitants/bed is far below the remainder of the basin. The average number of inhabitants per home is six.

Table 4: Selected social indicators from the Nicaraguan Sector of the SJRB.