Lawmakers just could not get around to accepting a $130 million loan from the Japanese Bank of International Cooperation.

The deadline will be Monday, but there is little chance of passage by then. Ricardo Sancho Chavarría, executive president of the Instituto de Acueductos y Alcantarillados, told lawmakers that he had to seek a 30-day extension from the Japanese bank manager, Hajime Takeuchi.

It was Sancho who went before lawmakers July 4 and urged them to hurry up and pass the measure. The money will be used to reconstruct the sewer system in the Central Valley and build a sewage treatment plant. Now Central Valley sewage flows into the Río Tarcoles and then the Gulf of Nicoya.

The loan is a favorable one with a low interest rate. But some lawmakers, remembering the corruption scandals of last year involving foreign loans, want a full study of the contract.

The metropolitan sewer system does not cover the whole area and where it does the pipes are rusted through in some cases. Large quantities of raw sewage flow into streams when rain infiltrates into the sanitary system.