Major Newspaper Hammers Costa Rica Tourism on Sewage

April 17

By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

The country's tourism is sustaining another body blow today as a major U.S. newspaper publishes a news story about "tourism's environmental dark side."

The newspaper is the prestigious Christian Science Monitor, an international daily newspaper known for its even-handed treatment. The story also is on the newspaper's Web site with today's date.

The piece, which relies on environmentalists to tell the story about Costa Rica's Pacific development, was written by David Sherwood, who has been associated with The Tico Times.

The story concentrates on the sewage problems of Tamarindo where, it says, "runaway tourism development is turning the sea into an open sewer."

The news story incorrectly credits the State of the Nation for revealing in 2006 that much of Costa Rica's sewage goes into the ocean untreated but makes no mention of the $500 million Central Valley plan for new sewers and treatment that was announced in January 2005.

The project is supposed to start in November.

The Christian Science Monitor is published in Boston, Massachusetts, but is distributed all over the world.