Puerto Rico officials announced emergency water rationing measures Thursday as a deepening drought pushes the U.S. territory’s struggling water system to its limits, adding to a crisis that already led the governor to declare a state of emergency.
Luis González, executive president of the island’s water and sewer authority, said thousands of residents in the northeastern part of the island will face 48-hour rationing periods beginning Friday. The cutbacks will impact multiple communities in the cities of Canovanas and Rio Grande, with temperatures continuing to climb.
“There’s just not enough water,” González said, warning that the rationing program will likely spread to additional areas across the island.
González pointed to a lack of rainfall as the primary cause, though the island’s water troubles actually predate the drought. Severe shortages began hitting some of Puerto Rico’s most densely populated areas months earlier, and officials have yet to pinpoint the cause of those earlier outages.
The earlier water failures prompted the mayor of San Juan to take legal action against the island’s Water and Sewer Authority in late May. Gov. Jenniffer González has acknowledged that the agency’s infrastructure has gone without adequate investment or upkeep for decades.
Last month, nearly 40,000 customers lost water service — a disruption unrelated to the current drought — prompting González to call in the National Guard.
According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, 14% of Puerto Rico is currently experiencing severe drought conditions, while another 59% is under moderate drought — a sharp increase from just 18% in late June. Roughly 2.3 million of Puerto Rico’s 3.2 million residents now live in a drought-affected area.
This is not the first time Puerto Rico has faced strict rationing. During a 2016 drought, approximately 400,000 utility customers received water service only once every three days.
Residents affected by the shortages have taken to the streets in protest, and a growing number of lawmakers are pressing for answers.
Rep. Domingo J. Torres was direct in his criticism: “What’s happening with the Puerto Rico Water and Sewer Authority cannot be attributed solely to the drought. What we’re seeing is a management that improvises, that reacts only when the crisis is already upon us, and that has failed to present a clear plan to guarantee access to drinking water.”
Torres formally submitted a request Wednesday seeking information on what steps the water and sewer authority is taking to address the drought and protect access to safe drinking water. A spokesperson for the agency did not respond to a request for comment.
Legislators also convened a public hearing this week examining the financial toll of the water crisis on an island where nearly 40% of the population lives in poverty.
