When you are buying property here in Costa Rica, one of the most important factors to consider is the water source for your future home. There are four options here in our area for water:
(1) Municpal water (AYA). The AYA currently only provides water along the main road of Santa Teresa, and up to an approximate altitude of 60 meters on the side roads. A huge number of properties and residences remain without access to the municipal water. If you are purchasing a house you will want to check whether the property is already connected to the municipal water. If you are buying raw land, during the due diligence process you will want your lawyer to obtain a water availability letter from the AYA confirming that they will connect the property to the municipal water.
(2) Community ASADA. Some areas (such as Delicias and parts of San Isidro) are provided with water by a local community ASADA. This is simlar to having a municipal connection, but the system is run by the community association. As with the above, the availabilty of a connection with an ASADA will be checked during due diligence process of your purchase..
(3).Hand-dug or Artisinal Well. Where there is no access to either the AYA or an ASADA, the options will be either a hand-dug well or a perforated well. An artisinal well is dug by hand, with maximum depths likely to be up to 30 meters. There are two advantages of a hand-dug well over a perforated well - 1. you don´t need to obtain a permit prior to digging and 2. it is much cheaper. However, new regulations have recently been established regarding hand-dug wells that greatly impact on how you can develop the land. Firstly, the Water Department of the MINAET is no longer providing registrations for hand-dug wells. In the Cobano area (including Santa Teresa), the local Municipal government has decided that they will not provide building permits for properties that do not have a registration for their well. This means that if you are buying property without a current legal water source and for which connection to the municipal/ASADA water is not possible, your only option will be to do a perforated well if you plan to build. Secondly, the set back for septic tanks or treatment plants from a hand-dug well is 40 meters. This is a big area, and during the due diligence you will want to make sure that any future construction is not unduly impacted by this set back. The current price for digging a hand-dug well is approximately $470 per meter. So a 10 meter well will cost you approximately $4,700.
(4). Perforated Well - a perforated well is a deep well that is created by heavy-duty drilling machinery. Before drilling you need to obtain a drill permit from the MINAET (this can take between 1 and 6 months). And after drilling you will need to obtain a concession to use the water before you can either obtain a building permit or connect to the well to use it. A concession can take anywhere from 6 months to 18 months to obtain. Perforated wells can be anywhere from 40 meters in depth to 180 meters in depth. The drilling is charged by the meter, with the current cost being approximately $160 per meter. There is also a cost for obtaining the permit, mobilization, pump test and concession application. Costs can be around approximately $30,000 depending on how deep you have to drill to find water. There are certain rules to consider when contemplating a perforated well. There is a setback of a radius of 40 meters from all buildings, roads and property lines. The setback can be reduced by completing a filtration study to prove that there are no dangers of the water well contaminating the aquifer. Based on the filtration study results, the geologist can apply for a reduction of the setback to a 15-meter radius. There is also a setback for drilled wells from other registered wells, natural springs and rivers of 100 meters. These setbacks will obviously need to be studied in order to work out if it is possible to drill a perforated well on your property.
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