Contents Characterization

Introduction

With an area of about 38,500 km2 (Map 1), abundant and high-quality groundwater, annual rainfall that varies between 1,500 and 6,000 mm, and a wide range of ecosystems, including Lake Nicaragua, the San Juan River Basin (SJRB) contains the most significant freshwater reserve in Central America. More than a million inhabitants (290,000 in Costa Rica and 780,000 in Nicaragua) live in the basin; most are generally very poor and lack access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation. Furthermore, all economic and quality-of-life indicators for these populations are significantly below the national averages for both countries. Because of an imbalance in employment and income-generating opportunities between the two countries, migration into the Costa Rican portion of the basin during times of stress exceeds the capacity of existing local institutions to meet the needs this creates. Table 1 is instructive on this issue:

Table 1: Comparative land use figures for Costa Rica and Nicaragua in the SJRB

Type of Producer Nicaragua Costa Rica SJRB Total
Hectares % Hectares % Hectares %
Subsistence Agriculture 183,996 12.0     183,996 6.5
Small Producer 735,984 48.0 480.112 37.0 1,216,096 43.0
Commercial Producer 601,620 39.2 794,766 61.2 1,396,388 49.3
Agro-industrial 11,700 0.8 22,720 1.8 34,420 1.2
Subtotal 1,533,300 100.0 1,297,600 100.0 2,830,900 100.0
Non-Agriculture Uses* 1,046.300   132,100   1,178,400  
Total 2,579,600   1,429,700   4,009,300  

*Includes lakes and conservation and protection areas.

The socio-economic conditions and the status of the natural resources in the SJRB are of concern to both civil society and the governments of this transboundary river basin. As a result, the two ministries of environment (MINAE in Costa Rica and MARENA in Nicaragua), with technical support from OSDE/OAS and financing from the Global Environment Facility (GEF), are formulating a Strategic Action Program for the integrated management of water resources and sustainable development in the basin and its coastal zone (PROCUENCA-SAN JUAN.) Dialogues are a major instrument in the development of this action plan.

How the populations and institutions react to events such as flooding, drought, and hurricanes that originate with the variability of the region’s climate is also of interest. Within the framework of PROCUENCA-SAN JUAN, a dialogue on water and climate designed to explore these questions was financed by the Government of the Netherlands under the auspices of the International Secretariat of the Dialogue on Water and Climate (IS/DWC). As a part of the IS/DWC study, a field investigation of the coping mechanisms used by the households, communities and institutions in the SJRB was one of its principal activities.