Valoración económica del uso de tecnologías de saneamiento ecológico para aguas residuales domiciliares

In Costa Rica only 4% of the population has Sanitary Sewage System (SSS) with treatment plant in operation. This has contributed to generate very high environmental costs, not only by the deterioration in quality and quantity of a vital natural resource like water, but also because this deterioration causes additional costs like the diseases and the diminution in the productivity of some economic activities that depend on this natural resources. If technologies of ecological sanitation are implemented, the environmental costs caused by traditional technologies are reduced significantly and their costs of implementation are relatively low for families. In the present work two models were specified in which each family of the Metropolitan area of San José (Costa Rica) incurs in an environmental cost of between U$305 (with Sanitary Sewage System - SSS) and US$ 509 (with septic tank and no treatment of served water - NTSW). Considering that 400,000 families live in this area the total annual environmental cost ascends to between US$122 (with SSS) and US$203 (NTSW) million dollars. This information is very important as a tool to improve the present systems of treatment and to raise awareness among the population.