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On Saturday, Aug. 1, I got a phone call from a Puerto Rican friend named Gwen, who lives on the island. She and her husband, who is also Puerto Rican, retired to the island and live in a middle-class “gated community” in the north. She called to let me know that they were leaving that evening to come back here to the states, where they still have an apartment. She would be attending a women’s gathering with me the next day. While we were on the phone, she mentioned that for a few days, she had had very little or no water where she was living, and had just heard through the grapevine that water was out in other areas of the island and in San Juan, but when they lost water, there was nothing on the TV news or in the newspapers, and as far as she knew, this was simply a localized problem in her housing complex, which consists of 21 buildings, each with six units on three floors—each floor with two units. 

I told her I had heard nothing about it (she knows I scan P.R.-related news every morning).

When I got off the phone, I did a news search, in English and in Spanish. Lo and behold, I found some news items. They were not from local P.R. media, nor were they from our mainland mainstream media. (I wasn’t surprised by that.) The mainstream news wasn’t about thousands of people with no potable water. It was busy covering Bad Bunny. Don’t get me wrong—I’m a fan, but I think “no drinkable water” is more important. 

The first water-crisis story I saw was in People’s Dispatch, a left-wing news collective I was unfamiliar with, and dated July 31.

Water crisis deepens in Puerto Rico by Pablo Meriguet

The severe drinking water crisis in San Juan, Puerto Rico, is worsening, and is not limited to the old colonial city but also affects other municipalities across the country. However, San Juan has become the focus of public opinion due to the high influx of tourists who come to the city as part of Caribbean cruise itineraries, as well as for summer concerts, such as the upcoming Bad Bunny shows.

The water shortage that began on July 24 is not only affecting tourism, but also other types of businesses, many of which have recently decided to temporarily close or reduce their activities, dealing a major blow to an already struggling economy.

“And to talk about the damage to Puerto Rico’s reputation as a tourist destination caused by the fact that we have been without water since Thursday … It seems that the government is not realizing what Old San Juan is,” said Juan Fernández, vice president of the Old San Juan Merchants Association.

[..]

Why is there no water?

Much criticism is directed at the new state management of the Puerto Rico Aqueduct and Sewer Authority (AAA). The AAA, for its part, has defended itself by stating that the problem is a breakdown at the Sergio Cuevas water plant, which transports the vital liquid from the Carraízo dam in Trujillo Alto.

The crisis was further complicated when a 54-inch diameter pipe broke in Sergio Cuevas, leaving more than 183,000 people without water. The crisis has led to the Isla Verde International Airport having to be supplied 30 times a day by tanker trucks.

The second story I saw was in Cuba’s Prensa Latina, posted after Puerto Rico’s Republican governor finally stepped up and called out the National Guard.

GREENWIRE | SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Puerto Rico’s governor declared a state of emergency Wednesday and activated the National Guard after thousands of homes were left without water.

Nearly 180,000 customers were affected at the peak of the outage late last week. As of Wednesday, nearly 3,000 customers were still without water, including nearly a dozen hotels, according to Gov. Jenniffer González.

The problem has angered many on the island of 3.2 million people, especially because the state water and sewer authority has declined to name the company responsible for damaging a main water line while repairing a road last week.

A reminder: “Customers” is not the number of people affected. One “customer” could be a household with multiple residents or one business with multiple employees.

Lack of drinking water causes a major crisis in Puerto Rico

(translated)

San Juan, Aug 1 (Prensa Latina) In order to respond to the situation faced today by several municipalities in Puerto Rico due to the lack of drinking water, Governor Jenniffer Gonzalez met with officials of the public corporation.  

[..]

 The steady access to drinking water is not a privilege, it is an essential right of every Puerto Rican,” the governor said after more than 15 days since this vital resource has been unavailable to thousands of Puerto Ricans.

 The president of Puerto Rico Aqueduct and Sewer Authority (Prasa), Luis Gonzalez, assured that more than 98 percent of the subscribers have drinking water service.

 This represents significant progress, leaving only 1.7 percent of customers, equivalent to less than 7,444 people still without access to service throughout the island.

 The figure is questioned by several sectors, particularly merchants in key tourist areas, such as San Juan and Carolina, who have had to invest thousands of dollars in hiring tanker trucks to supply their businesses.

I called my friend Gwen again to go over the timeline of her story, and she gave me a detailed account of her experience, and frustrations.

They lost water on Friday evening, July 25, which they were alerted about in a text message from the community administrator. Gwen read me the long series of texts she received over the next few days, and said she was not aware that this was anything but a problem in their complex. Problems with delay in repairs were attributed to the fact that the weekend and following Monday were two holidays—Puerto Rican Constitution Day, which is observed on July 25, and Barbosa Day, observed on July 27, in Puerto Rico to honor the birth of statesman José Celso Barbosa.

Residents were informed that they would get a text message to let them know when a municipal water truck would be in the area, to go and get some potable water. She pointed out to me that unless neighbors stepped up to help elderly or infirm residents and bring them water from the tanker, they would have had to go without. It wasn’t until July 31—six days after the loss of water—that Gwen and her husband learned by word of mouth that other areas of the island were without water, including San Juan. This wasn’t simply a localized issue. She had still seen nothing on the news.

On Thursday, July 31, she got a text from the community admin indicating that due to the fact that there had been “a break in the Super Aqueduct,” water service would be shut down and water service to all the buildings would be intermittent.

She said to me that the hardest part of all this was “the not-knowing”—not knowing things like “when can you flush your toilet.”

As a side note, on Sunday, Aug. 3, when I saw her face to face at our annual women’s gathering, when we all were seated in a sharing circle, I brought up what she had told me, and the women were shocked. This is a group of majority Puerto Rican women, most very political, and all internet savvy. None knew about the water crisis on the island.

Meanwhile, on the island, mayors from various municipalities called a press conference, reported by WAPA-TV.

14 towns in drinking water crisis: PDP mayors call Prasa to account

(translated)

The Mayors Association, a group that brings together the top executives of the Popular Democratic Party (PDP) in Puerto Rico, called on top officials of the Puerto Rico Aqueduct and Sewer Authority (Prasa) to account for the drinking water crisis in the country.

In the letter, sent on July 28, the agency was told of multiple sectors and/or neighborhoods in 14 towns that have been without the essential service in their homes for more than two weeks.

The letter was signed by the association’s executive director and also a member of the Prasa Governing Board, Verónica Rodríguez Irizarry, on behalf of the body’s president, Jayuya Mayor Jorge González Otero.

“I am obliged to express the deep concern expressed by multiple mayors, as well as the communities affected by the prolonged interruptions in drinking water service that are being experienced in various regions of the country,” Rodríguez Irizarry wrote to the authority’s president, engineer Luis González Delgado.

Elected officials from the Puerto Rican Popular Democratic Party weighed in as well, which was reported in The San Juan Star.

The spokesperson for the Popular Democratic Party (PDP) in the Senate, Luis Javier Hernández Ortiz, denounced on Monday the lack of communication between the Puerto Rico Aqueduct and Sewer Authority (PRASA) and the mayors amid the ongoing water crisis affecting the metropolitan area and other municipalities across the island.

“For several days now, not only has the metropolitan area been without water, but many municipalities across the island are also experiencing service outages. No one knows the reasons, no one knows what’s going on,” said Hernández Ortiz in a press conference.

“Our experience speaking with different mayors is that there is no proper communication with them,” the spokesperson added.

After the governor finally got on the case, English-language paper The San Juan Star posted:

National Guard boosts water delivery

The Puerto Rico National Guard has activated personnel and specialized equipment to assist the Puerto Rico Aqueduct and Sewer Authority (PRASA) in distributing potable water to several municipalities affected by service interruptions.

“The Puerto Rico National Guard is providing direct support to PRASA, with a distribution capacity of approximately 48,000 gallons per day using six Hippo-type vehicles,” said Colonel Carlos Rivera Román, Puerto Rico’s Adjutant General, in a written statement.

Efforts are concentrated in Canóvanas, Carolina, Corozal, Guaynabo, Loíza, Naranjito, Trujillo Alto, Vega Alta, and areas of San Juan, where access to drinking water has been compromised.

Puerto Rico water utility coordinator begins urgent review of system failures

Carlos Pesquera, the newly appointed special coordinator for the Puerto Rico Aqueduct & Sewer Authority (PRASA), told News is my Business that his immediate priority is identifying the root causes of recent water service interruptions affecting several municipalities across the island.

“My goal is to figure out what’s happening — what caused the recent breakdowns, whether they could’ve been prevented, and how vulnerable the system is long term,” Pesquera said.

To that end, he plans site visits and interviews over the next month, focusing on key potable water facilities, including the Sergio Cuevas Plant in San Juan, the Los Filtros Plant in Guaynabo, and the facility supplied by the La Plata River. He will also review PRASA’s capital improvement plans, including a major project at Sergio Cuevas.

Pesquera stressed the need for urgency and interagency coordination. “We need to identify the weak points in the system and work quickly to address them,” he said. “This effort should bring together agencies involved in permitting and funding — including [the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)] and the Financial Oversight and Management Board — so that these projects can move forward efficiently.”

He noted that while funding is generally available, “small setbacks” often escalate into major delays. “My goal is to get ahead of those issues.”

While we continue to keep an eye on repairs and potential future problems, we shouldn’t ignore the fact that 120,000 Puerto Ricans are not served by PRASA (Puerto Rico Aqueduct & Sewer Authority), which is something many people are unaware of. 

Here’s an important story from Inside Climate News on Puerto Ricans faced with an overwhelming struggle to have potable water, which gets little or no attention:

In Rural Puerto Rico, Water Systems Depend on Volunteers—and Threatened Federal Grants

In Puerto Rico’s most rural municipalities, residents are often not connected to the main water system. The Puerto Rico Aqueduct and Sewer Authority (PRASA) owns and operates 95 percent of the public water supply and wastewater systems in the archipelago, but rural residents must rely on smaller aqueduct systems for their potable water.

Unpaid community members often volunteer to maintain these smaller systems, doing the work out of passion and care for their neighbors despite having far fewer financial resources than PRASA. But when federal funding that helps communities maintain their water systems is cut, the way that individuals are able to maintain these systems is impacted. Weather patterns attributable to climate change, such as more frequent and powerful storms, exacerbate this issue.

“All the funds allocated to the aqueducts are federal funds, and they’re the first to be cut. So it limits us,” said Miriam Matos Díaz, 49, president of the Non-PRASA Aqueduct Systems Organization (OSAN) of Puerto Rico, a nonprofit organization and network of small water systems that are not connected to PRASA.

OSAN’s website details some of the major issues:

“68% of those not served by PRASA get their water from underground sources, which requires a significant financial investment in digging a well”

“Many of the community aqueducts are located within communities where the largest number of residents live below the poverty level and with little formal education.”

“32% of those not served by PRASA get their water from surface sources, which may require more extensive delivery and treatment infrastructure.”

“Unfortunately, because they are so under-financed while faced with the rising costs of water testing, many of these systems do not meet water quality standards.“ 

Potable water is life. This water crisis can’t be blamed on a hurricane. Here’s hoping that every Puerto Rican will have access.

Join me in the comments section below to discuss, and for the weekly Caribbean News Roundup. I’m curious to know when and where you heard about this.