by Rod Hughes

The price of a computer-savvy government is 13,000 tons of contaminants per year laid on the environment and the Environment Ministry has yet to put in place its plans to prevent the damage, according to a report in today’s daily La Nacion.

Contaminants include burned out monitors, scanners and photocopiers, toner, batteries and discarded cell phones, the report concludes. All contain heavy metals which can cause, according to Dr. William Bujan, hemotologist at Hospital Mexico, brain and liver damage, anemia, and bone marrow illnesses, especially if it seeps into ground water.

The toxic material includes cadmium from batteries, lead and lead acid. Eugenio Androvetto of the Ministry of Health, admits that no one has yet devise a plan of collection and disposal of these materials. And, Dr. Bujan adds, the slow accumulation of heavy metals makes illness caused by them difficult to diagnose.

Fortunately, two companies in the country do process this type of dangerous waste: Fortech, in Cartago, (Tel. 2573- 8634) processes 10 tons monthly. Servicios Ecologicos in Santa Ana also disposes of such materials. It may be contacted through Daniela Garcia (at the University Nacional at Heredia) by calling 2249-3052.

by Rod Hughes

The split in Costa Rica’s National Olympic Committee is holding up delivery of $50,000 destined to help the country’s athletes get to the Olympic Games this summer in Peking. Embattled committee chairman Jorge Nery Carvajal admitted that the funds from the PanAmerican Sports Organization are frozen until the committee’s civil war is resolved.

Late last year, a majority of the federations of different disciplines (swimming, athletics, etc.) mounted a movement to displace Carvajal and his hand-picked roster of officials. Right now two separate sets of top officials exist and attempts at an agreement at the last meeting were brought to an abrupt end when Carvajal summarily shut down the conference.

Carvajal said he would step down but not until after the Olympic Games in China. Almost all the federations want his resignation yesterday, if not before. The heads of at least 26 Olympic sports want him out in the rancorous dispute over Carvajal’s administration. The funds are “on hold,” according to Carvajal and athletes have been attending qualifying meets with funding from the government and private firms.

(Ironically, the perpetually warring city states of ancient Greece called a truce during the Olympic Games but the quaint custom does not appear to have survived.)

by Rod Hughes

The old National Stadium, which has had some explosive sports events and loud rock concerts, will be rocked by explosions of a different sort in a couple of weeks as demolition continues to make way for a China-financed $70 million 35,000-seat sports showplace. Crews will be using dynamite on the old prefabricated concrete east and west stands, after they found that the seats could not be recycled.

Although the stands were found to be deteriorated structurally, the natural turf is another matter. The grass is to be urooted carefully and replanted in the surrounding Sabana Park, a popular recreation place in downtown San Jose. Where the nation’s All Star soccer team once trod will be taken over by boys and overage, overweight men puffing along in pick-up matches, the latter risking injury and heart attacks.

President of the National Sports Council, Osvaldo Pandolfo, explained, “A structural engineer studied the stands and decided it would be extremely difficult to save them. Moreover, he determined that it would be a very serious risk to move them to a different site because they could cause an accident.”

Jose Alfredo Sanchez of the MECO construction company agreed that an order was issued to “demolish them because they suffer fissures and do not conform to the seismic code, therefore cannot be reinstalled in another place.” (This is a pity. Many other stadiums in the country are also substandard. A few years ago, wooden stands at Nicoya (Ganacaste) collapsed during a First Divsiion soccer game before the Guanacaste club moved its franchise to Escazu. Fortunately, no serious injuries occurred.)

Pandolfo said the stands had been promised to the Carmelita First Division club for a new stadium planned for Alajuela, but, due to the deterioration, it could not be done. But Carmleita club president Carlos Gonzalez said he had yet to be notified of the change and would wait until it is official before meeting with his directors to see what must be done. Obviously, constructing new stands from the ground up will add tremendously to the new stadium’s cost.