On Puerto Rico's Current and Coming Water Crisis

Over the last two months, Puerto Rico’s metropolitan area has been experiencing serious water shortages because of a ruptured water pipeline. Some people went more than 40 days without running water. Although water has returned for many, there's serious concern as to whether they'll continue to have it as the archipelago experiences significant drought.

At the height of the crisis caused by the broken pipeline, there were more than 100,000 customers without water. That amounts to several hundred thousand people between homes and businesses. At time of writing, there’s still a couple thousand people who still don’t have access to water.

The majority of the people suffering through the water crisis spent a lot of their time baking under the hot sun as they waited in line to fill up every container they had with water from water-tank trucks paid for by the municipality. The government activated the National Guard to help with water distribution and even went as far as using sanitized milk trucks to deliver water. Because these trucks tended to be located in the most easily accessible areas, they were hard to reach for some people, particularly Puerto Rico’s elderly, which accounts for a quarter of the archipelago’s 3.2 million population.

While cisterns that hold hundreds to thousands of gallons are fairly common across the archipelago, the average house runs through about about 300 gallons a day, so there's no way to outlast a multi-week shortage even if they were rationing. This means that you have to pay for a water truck to fill it up, which can range anywhere from a couple hundred dollars to a couple thousand depending on how much you needed to fill. The restaurant association estimated that restaurants were spending about $2,000 to $3,500 a week per restaurant. Many chose to cut off access to their bathrooms and significantly reduce services as water saving measures.

The crisis was caused by several ruptures in the 72-inch “superaqueduct” that supplies water to much of the northern parts of the archipelago. The tube, a steel worm burrowed in the earth, was built more than 25 years ago to supply water to over 1.5 million Puerto Ricans. However, since it hasn't been properly maintained by the state water authority, PRASA, parts started to rust or completely break, causing water to flow into the earth instead of people's homes.

Thankfully, for us in Caguas, the situation wasn’t exceptionally bad. We only spent about 10 days without water. Between the cistern and taking water from the pool, we were able to deal with it. Very quickly, shower heads were replaced with gallon jugs, washing the dishes happened thanks to a small stream of water running through the pipes, and flushing the toilet meant dumping buckets of water into the toilet. Laundry went unwashed the whole time. It was shocking how quickly it just became our "new normal." By the third day, all of these things became part of the tasks that you have to do every day, like brushing your teeth or walking your dog.

People can get used to anything, just don't ask them how.

In a lot of ways, this is what collapse looks like, a bunch of “extraordinary bullshit” between mostly normal days. In this instance, it was a lack of water. But Puerto Ricans have become exceptionally used to dealing with bullshit when it comes to public services. For years, people have endured a worsening electricity crisis that has caused daily or weekly blackouts for many. But the latest water shortage is a symptom of something that’s been brewing for a very long time.