Good afternoon, Lic. Ricardo Sancho, Executive President of Acueductos y Alcantarillados; Congressman José Manuel Echandi, a member of the Special Commission on Environment in Congress; Dr. Darner Mora, Executive Director for the Bandera Azul Ecológica Program; Marvin Elizondo, Mayor of Garabito; and members of the municipality counsel.
Good afternoon, Monsignor Oscar Fernández, Bishop of Puntarena dieses; Gustavo Alvarado, Director for Sustainable Tourism; school directors of the communities of Quebrada Ganado, Tárcoles, Central de Atena, Nuevo Milenio de Grecia, representatives of the Ministerio de Seguridad and Tourist police. Good afternoon reporters, guests, and members of committees pro bandera. Today we are dressed in blue in honor of Bandera Azul Ecológica.
For me it is an honor to receive you at this beautiful beach and to tell you that we are proud of the work and effort made by our committee achieving the highest award of four stars in Playa Blanca, continuing with two stars in Playa Mantas, one star in Playa Limoncito and achieving two stars for the Punta Leona community.
The task has not been easy because we have not only maintained our awards but Playa Agujas has also for the eighth consecutive year as well as the Quebrada Ganado School, the only school in the Central Pacific to achieve this honor.
The Bandera Azul Program is teamwork, a team consisting of AyA, a team of committees for each beach, school and community, a team for Costa Rica.
Today, on behalf of the Punta Leona Committee I give this speech. This team is composed of more than two thousand members and their families that support us, coworkers who have worked implementing programs in our installations and the neighboring communities such as Agujas and Quebrada Ganado. Today I recognize their work publicly.
For a tourist company such as our own, Bandera Azul Ecológica is a stamp of quality but for us it is a way of life.
In our country we live from tourism in a natural surrounding. So we have the commitment to evaluate our impact on the communities that surround us and to guarantee that this impact be beneficial and sustainable for all.
It is also necessary to emphasize that responsible social and company programs should become the fashion. In Punta Leona we have begun to interact with the communities and to support them in their social endeavors. We have consolidated in the Garabito zone to become a friend and ally to our neighbors in their well being, health, growth, education and development.
This year we have increased our efforts so much so that in 2006 we planted 18 thousand trees. The National Bandera Azul Ecológica Commission recommended ten thousand trees but we wanted to surpass the goal and to make green our communities and beaches of: Agujas, Quebrada Ganado, Guacalillo, Jacó, Bajamar, even Punta Leona.
Each year we carry out a campaign against dengue with cleanups and fumigation in neighboring communities, even tire collections only eight days ago in Tárcoles River.
We are very proud of who we are and the work we do. We believe in Bandera Azul Ecológica because it has shown us a way t o improve and in the end offer quality service to our visitors.
In Punta Leona we have recycling programs for plastics, glass and aluminum. We have begun a conservation program in energy with the ICE. We guarantee the water for human consumption by means of a program named Sello de Calidad Sanitaria and we recycle water for irrigation. We actively participate in the protection of species with programs for Red Macaws and sea turtles. We have daily beach cleanups.
Thanks to the company Ecoservicios who is in charge of the aqueduct we can guarantee good quality water that meets with the requirements stipulated by the AyA. We do this and much more in Punta Leona. |
