In a letter addressed to the Municipal Council, he calls to take care of the water sources, after learning about the presence of degraded residues of chlorothalonil fungicide.
The proven presence of degraded products of the pesticide chlorothalonil, as well as traces of nine other poisons in water intakes in the community of Cipreses de Oreamuno, led the Provincial Association of Doctors of Cartago to send a letter to the Municipal Council of that canton, in which expresses “concern regarding the possible contamination of the waters” at that site.
Since 2020, the Cipreses Ecologist Front has denounced the invasion of crops and other activities in the protection areas of the wells that supply the Cipreses ASADA, which supplies more than 3,000 people from the cantons of Oreamuno, Paraíso, Alvarado and the Cervantes community.
In addition, the Socio-environmental Kiosks Program of the UCR in March announced the results of analyzes carried out by the Regional Institute for Studies on Toxic Substances (IRET) of the University (UNA) that demonstrated the presence of degraded products of the fungicide chlorothalonil, considered “highly dangerous”, as it causes liver problems and kidney failure and is also classified as carcinogenic, according to the General Directorate for Health and Food Safety of the European Union.
On that occasion, the presence of traces of another nine pesticides was also demonstrated in the water of the town of Plantón and in the Carlos Calvo water intake in that community.
The letter from the Provincial Association of Doctors of Cartago recalls the case of lead in gasoline. “For many years there was a great global and scientific debate” regarding its effects, “it was necessary to make many research efforts to finally clarify that lead is a contaminant. We do not want a similar situation to be happening in our communities.”
For this reason, “we want to strongly express the importance of taking care of the water springs” of Cipreses that supply the aforementioned communities, in order to “avoid contamination of the precious liquid and possible damage to people’s health.”
The Association also requested that all pertinent information be shared with it.
It should be remembered that on June 3, the Minister of Health, Joselyn Chacón, sent a letter to the Executive President of the Costa Rican Institute of Aqueducts and Sewers (AyA) so that “urgently” molecules derived from the dangerous poison chlorothalonil be included in the panel. of pesticides detected by the National Water Laboratory.
This in order that “in the shortest time possible” these analyzes are carried out in the water of the community of Cipreses de Oreamuno and that through the Environmental Health Unit of the Ministry of Health, a plan for measuring these molecules is prepared. in the aqueducts “that may have contamination risk factors due to the extensive agricultural extension in this and other areas of the country.”
Front Ecologista de Cipreses comes out against assertions made by the AyA regarding contamination