RTL Today – Costa Rica will ration electricity now that the drought is hitting

Costa Rica is the last Latin American country to implement rationing due to drought. It announced on Thursday it would restrict access to electricity, for which it relies heavily on hydropower generation.

The dams that feed the country’s hydroelectric dams were low because of the El Nino weather phenomenon, officials said.

“This El Nino has really been the most complicated in the history of Costa Rica,” Roberto Quiros, director of the electricity agency ICE, told reporters in San Jose.

The rationing will take effect on Monday for an indefinite period.

About 99 percent of Costa Rica’s electricity comes from renewable sources, about three-quarters from hydroelectric power plants.

“We haven’t seen a drought like this in 50 years,” said Berny Fallas, a climate expert at ICE, Costa Rica’s main energy supplier.

On Wednesday, the World Meteorological Organization said in a report that Latin America and the Caribbean had their hottest year on record in 2023, as a “double whammy” of El Nino and climate change caused major weather disasters.

Much of Central America has suffered intense drought, forcing neighboring Panama to restrict traffic in the canal of the same name.

The ICE said this will be Costa Rica’s first electricity rationing since 2007, when El Nino also wreaked havoc on water levels.

Hospitals, basic services and industry will not be affected by the cuts, it added.

Further south, Ecuador has recently had to ration electricity due to a shortage of water for hydropower generation, while Colombia’s capital, Bogota, is rationing municipal water.