Relevant Information
Last updated Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Health Boss Wants Tamarindo Waste-Water Plan
The Minister of Health has ordered a plan to be drawn up of Tamarindo’s sewage and draining system, as a first stage in a project to fix what one engineer described as a “serious problem” with the town’s waste-water.
The project, effectively mapping all Tamarindo and Langosta’s piping, drainage and waste-water from houses, offices and hotels, will be put out to tender.
The Ministry is hoping to attract an international contractor, which would be expected to complete the work by the end of the year.
“We are thinking of looking for the cooperation of international organizations, as we did in San José, where the Fundación de Cooperación Suiza made up the drawings or maps,” said Dr Edgar García, an assessor with the Ministry of Health.
Municipality Meets Over Marina Deadline
The Municipality of Santa Cruz was to meet with consultants late this week to thrash out the final details of an announcement on which bidders had successfully passed to the next phase of a process to win the right to develop and operate the Flamingo Marina in Guanacaste.
Eight national and international consortiums have submitted bids to the municipality for marina projects ranging from $12.5 million to $45 million.
They have been waiting six weeks to learn whether or not they have met minimum tender requirements and will pass through to the next phase in the process.
A team of architects and lawyers, taken on by the municipality to help adjudicate the process, has been poring over the bids since early March. They said this week they expected to wrap up their work “in the first or second week of May.”
“We do not want to qualify aspects that then may have to be corrected afterwards,” said Pedro Abdalla, who heads up the team of consultants.
“In this matter there are always many interests involved and we are not lawyers to identify them,” he said. “We are architects, but we have legal advisors analysing the documents.”
Bidders were to know by the end of February whether they had passed a pre-determined points test, known as pre-qualification, and in doing so could pass to the next phase. Simply, they must achieve 80 points in a test of resources, experience and financial clout.
The municipality and its consultants shrug off criticisms over the delays.
Record Numbers Through Liberia’s Airport
More than 50,000 passengers used Liberia’s Daniel Oduber International Airport last month, breaking all previous records and providing a clear signal Guanacaste’s tourism sector is continuing to grow.
“This year, tourism was said to grow between ten and 15 per cent,” said Mauricio Céspedes, head of the Guanacaste Tourism Chamber. “We think it will be closer to 15 than ten.”
The sheer number of tourists using the facility, however, also raises questions as to the airport’s ability to process so many passengers.
Six years ago, when statistics were first kept, the airport saw about 15,000 in the month of March. Ever since then, airport officials have dealt with a constant demand for more staff.
Today, the airport is short-handed by between ten and 15 security guards, said Daniel Oduber’s administrator Analive Rosales.
“We have more stations to attend with the same number of people from years ago,” Ms Rosales said. For example, the airport has two security checkpoint x-ray machines, but only enough trained guards to operate one.
“We have done up to the impossible to see how we could get more personnel sent to us, but at this point we just don’t see that budget,” Ms Rosales added. Airport security officials must be budgeted and supplied by the Ministry of Public Security.
The administrator however insists the airport is coping with current passenger arrival and departures, thanks largely to two recently built, temporary open-air terminals paid for by the private sector.
Officials now have their eyes set on a new $13 million, international terminal, which is to be built in two phases under concession by a private company in the next two years.
The Minister of Health has ordered a plan to be drawn up of Tamarindo’s sewage and draining system, as a first stage in a project to fix what one engineer described as a “serious problem” with the town’s waste-water.
The project, effectively mapping all Tamarindo and Langosta’s piping, drainage and waste-water from houses, offices and hotels, will be put out to tender.
The Ministry is hoping to attract an international contractor, which would be expected to complete the work by the end of the year.
“We are thinking of looking for the cooperation of international organizations, as we did in San José, where the Fundación de Cooperación Suiza made up the drawings or maps,” said Dr Edgar García, an assessor with the Ministry of Health.
Municipality Meets Over Marina Deadline
The Municipality of Santa Cruz was to meet with consultants late this week to thrash out the final details of an announcement on which bidders had successfully passed to the next phase of a process to win the right to develop and operate the Flamingo Marina in Guanacaste.
Eight national and international consortiums have submitted bids to the municipality for marina projects ranging from $12.5 million to $45 million.
They have been waiting six weeks to learn whether or not they have met minimum tender requirements and will pass through to the next phase in the process.
A team of architects and lawyers, taken on by the municipality to help adjudicate the process, has been poring over the bids since early March. They said this week they expected to wrap up their work “in the first or second week of May.”
“We do not want to qualify aspects that then may have to be corrected afterwards,” said Pedro Abdalla, who heads up the team of consultants.
“In this matter there are always many interests involved and we are not lawyers to identify them,” he said. “We are architects, but we have legal advisors analysing the documents.”
Bidders were to know by the end of February whether they had passed a pre-determined points test, known as pre-qualification, and in doing so could pass to the next phase. Simply, they must achieve 80 points in a test of resources, experience and financial clout.
The municipality and its consultants shrug off criticisms over the delays.
Record Numbers Through Liberia’s Airport
More than 50,000 passengers used Liberia’s Daniel Oduber International Airport last month, breaking all previous records and providing a clear signal Guanacaste’s tourism sector is continuing to grow.
“This year, tourism was said to grow between ten and 15 per cent,” said Mauricio Céspedes, head of the Guanacaste Tourism Chamber. “We think it will be closer to 15 than ten.”
The sheer number of tourists using the facility, however, also raises questions as to the airport’s ability to process so many passengers.
Six years ago, when statistics were first kept, the airport saw about 15,000 in the month of March. Ever since then, airport officials have dealt with a constant demand for more staff.
Today, the airport is short-handed by between ten and 15 security guards, said Daniel Oduber’s administrator Analive Rosales.
“We have more stations to attend with the same number of people from years ago,” Ms Rosales said. For example, the airport has two security checkpoint x-ray machines, but only enough trained guards to operate one.
“We have done up to the impossible to see how we could get more personnel sent to us, but at this point we just don’t see that budget,” Ms Rosales added. Airport security officials must be budgeted and supplied by the Ministry of Public Security.
The administrator however insists the airport is coping with current passenger arrival and departures, thanks largely to two recently built, temporary open-air terminals paid for by the private sector.
Officials now have their eyes set on a new $13 million, international terminal, which is to be built in two phases under concession by a private company in the next two years.
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