Key facts
- Thousands of Puerto Ricans are facing severe water shortages, impacting major cities like San Juan.
- Governor Jenniffer González activated the National Guard to distribute water via trucks.
- The crisis is attributed to decades of underinvestment and lack of maintenance in the island's water infrastructure.
- Residents are incurring extra costs for potable water and facing daily struggles for basic needs.
- A lawsuit was filed against the Puerto Rico Water and Sewer Authority by the mayor of San Juan.
- The governor announced a $217 million investment in water infrastructure projects.
Puerto Rico is grappling with severe water shortages that have impacted thousands of residents, leading Governor Jenniffer González to deploy the National Guard and emergency responders. The crisis, which has been escalating for over a year in some areas, is largely concentrated in populated cities like the capital, San Juan. Officials have not publicly identified a single cause, but the situation highlights decades of insufficient investment and maintenance in the island's water infrastructure.
Residents are facing significant daily challenges, including purchasing potable water, using laundromats, and hauling water up multiple flights of stairs for basic hygiene and sanitation. The elderly and disabled are disproportionately affected, with some requiring hospitalization due to the persistent lack of water. Community leaders express frustration and concern for public health and safety, with some residents reporting being without water for up to two weeks.
In response to the growing crisis, Mayor Miguel Romero of San Juan filed a lawsuit against the Puerto Rico Water and Sewer Authority in late May. On the first weekend of June, nearly 40,000 customers experienced outages, prompting Governor González to activate the National Guard. The military branch began distributing water using four 2,000-gallon trucks, while the Puerto Rico Tourism Company deployed additional larger trucks. Even the Department of Agriculture contributed by repurposing milk transport trucks for water delivery.
Despite these efforts, water remains scarce for many. A judge has ordered experts to investigate the chronic water shortages. The current executive president of the Water and Sewer Authority, Luis González Delgado, has blamed his predecessor, Roberto Martínez Toledo, for some of the issues, though Martínez has been appointed to a committee tasked with finding solutions. The governor recently announced a $217 million investment in water infrastructure projects, but residents continue to face the burden of paying for water they do not receive.