“Today I signed a declaration of emergency for the people of Crucitas, which will allow us to use the resources of the CNE (National Emergency Commission) Emergency Relief Fund and the necessary administrative procedures to remedy the situation for these people,” President Rodrigo said Chaves at a press conference.
The situation in the area had been denounced by mayors and residents, who were temporarily supplied with drinking water by tanker trucks during the investigation.
“We will deal intensively with this topic, there are drones on the way. Obviously, the strategy hasn’t worked for us in years. There are reports of incredible illegal actions that we must attack and due to the delicacy of this we do not go into detail,” assured the President.
Since November 2022, an “increase in the level of contamination of drinking water systems and sources of this liquid as a result of the presence of mercury above acceptable levels has been detected in several cities in the region,” according to the emergency decree.
The locations affected by the emergency declaration are Crucitas, El Roble, Chamorro, Chorreras, Llano Verde and El Jocote, all small towns in north-central Costa Rica, near the border with Nicaragua.
The northern zone is occupied by artisanal miners dedicated to extracting gold using these chemicals, which environmental organizations say have caused severe damage to soil and rivers in the region.
Most of Costa Rica’s illegal gold mining takes place in the northern area of Crucitas, where Canadian mining company Infinito Gold attempted to develop a gold mining project but was blocked by courts due to the associated environmental impact.
Now, illegal miners are irregularly extracting the metals from this deposit and processing them with mercury or cyanide, chemicals used to make products like paper, cloth and plastics, and as a pesticide.
Human exposure to these products can cause serious health consequences and even death, according to scientific and medical sources.