ENACAL, the water company (Empresa Nicaragüense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados Sanitarios) has signed a contract to upgrade the potable water service in San Juan del Sur, Rivas.
The improvement and optimization of the water treatment plant at La Virgen, Rivas, will improve the water service to about 4,400 families (about 23,800 of the population) in the City of San Juan del Sur and surrounding areas.
The project will cost an estimated 39.4 million Córdobas (US $1.136 million) and will be financed by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the Government of Nicaragua. It will have an “Execution Term of 12 months”.
No other details such as the scope of work or a start date have been announced at this stage.
From Lake to Ocean
The ten year old 12.5 Million Euros (US $17 million) project to bring potable water from La Virgen to San Juan del Sur was funded by the Development Assistance Fund, of the Government of Spain and the Government of Nicaragua.
The ambitious plan came with the promise that “homes and businesses in San Juan del Sur will have water 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and 365 days year”.
Not since the World Bank’s sponsorship of the rehabilitation of the road from San Juan del Sur to La Virgen had modern day San Juan del Sur seen such an expensive and relevant project completed.
Work started in October 2009 on the project to capture water from Lake Cocibolca and clean it at a brand new water treatment facility at La Virgen. Now potable, the drinking water would then be pushed by a new pumping station along 24 kilometers of high pressure pipes to two massive holding tanks at El Bastón on La Chocolata, the back road to Rivas.
An upgraded San Juan del Sur sewer system, including new pumps and the elimination of the raised sewer pipe that crossed the estuary would deliver the sewer water to an upgraded treatment plant at Bahía Nacascolo. There it was made environmentally safe and pumped through a two kilometer undersea pipe out into the Pacific Ocean.
Prior to this project being completed, a rapidly growing San Juan del Sur relied on several ENACAL water wells situated just north of San Juan del Sur. At busy times (Christmas, New Year and Easter in particular) water was scarce because the wells and pumps were never designed to supply so many water connections.
The project was handed over to ENACAL just after Easter 2011.
