Thousands of Puerto Ricans are struggling with a water crisis severe enough that Gov. Jenniffer González has activated the National Guard, and emergency responders are fielding calls daily.
Residents in some of the island’s most populated cities, including San Juan, have been without running water for days and sometimes weeks at a time. According to the Chicago Tribune, nearly 40,000 customers were hit with water outages during the first weekend of June alone, prompting the governor to deploy National Guard trucks capable of holding 2,000 gallons each.
“They are playing with people’s health and lives,” said Jorge Figueroa, a community leader for several impoverished San Juan neighborhoods who described fielding daily questions from residents about when the next water truck would arrive.
The crisis is falling hardest on elderly and disabled residents, with community leaders reporting some have been hospitalized. Jeannette Mercado Rodríguez, 52, told the Associated Press she has spent up to two weeks without water while the island’s summer heat sets in. She still hauls five buckets and ten 2-liter bottles up to her third-floor apartment every day and recently injured her shoulder doing so.
“We can’t take it sometimes,” she said.
Elizabeth Sánchez, 79, at the Villa Kennedy public housing complex, said she injured her waist carrying buckets — and her husband can no longer help because he injured his back for the same reason.
The water shortage stems from decades of neglect of the island’s water infrastructure, according to the governor, who acknowledged the problem on a recent call with reporters.
San Juan Mayor Miguel Romero sued the island’s Water and Sewer Authority in late May.
The island has since deployed milk tanker trucks repurposed for water delivery and brought in additional trucks to serve hotels. Despite those measures, stationary tankers in some communities sat empty for days at a time.
“This is inhuman. It’s destroying the emotional state of a people,” said Luz Laborde, president of a neighborhood association in Santurce.
Residents are also being billed for water they are not receiving.
“That’s another outrage,” Laborde added. “You lose no matter what.”
On Wednesday night, the governor announced a $217 million investment in water infrastructure repair projects, though those without water said relief cannot come soon enough.
