ROB SCHMITZ, HOST:
The U.S. territory of Puerto Rico is running out of water. The government there has begun rationing, cutting water to people's homes on a rotating schedule. Reservoirs are running dry amid a drought, but water infrastructure on the Caribbean island has also been deteriorating for decades. NPR's Adrian Florido takes us there.
ADRIAN FLORIDO, BYLINE: In the center of the capital San Juan, Sonia Palacios (ph) lives in one of the many neighborhoods in Puerto Rico where running water is no longer a sure thing. Her apartment's on the ground floor of a three-story building.
Do you have water right now?
SONIA PALACIOS: I'll show you.
FLORIDO: She walks to a faucet on the side of her apartment and turns the knob.
Nothing.
PALACIOS: Not a drop.
FLORIDO: Not a drop.
PALACIOS: Not a drop.
FLORIDO: Although Puerto Rico officially began rationing water last week, many people, like Palacios, have been coping with dry taps for months now. Sometimes she gets water for a full day or two, sometimes just for an hour - often, not a drop for days, with no warning or explanation from the public water utility.
PALACIOS: So you get paralyzed because you cannot begin laundry because what happens if you are washing your clothes and that water ends? What do you do with all that clothes on that machine with soap? What do you do with that?
FLORIDO: She limits her showers. She uses paper towels to clean her dishes. She uses buckets and bins to store water whenever she can fill them. And she shows me all the empty gallons of water she's had to buy for drinking.
PALACIOS: But why do I have to be buying water from the supermarket when I'm supposed to be drinking water from the faucet? How come I have to do that?
FLORIDO: The 180,000 homes and businesses now affected by the government's new rationing plan will lose their running water between three and four days a week. On television, the governor, Jenniffer Gonzalez-Colon, said the cuts will continue until there's enough rain to replenish the island's reservoirs, which have run dangerously low amid Puerto Rico's driest summer in more than a century.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
JENNIFFER GONZALEZ-COLON: (Speaking Spanish).
FLORIDO: "We're facing a reality that's not within our control," the governor said. "It's not raining." It's an explanation that many people here are not buying because the problems started months before the drought.
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER: (Chanting in Spanish).
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: (Chanting in Spanish).
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER: (Chanting in Spanish).
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: (Chanting in Spanish).
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER: (Chanting in Spanish).
FLORIDO: People have been calling on the governor and the president of the island's public water utility to resign. They think they're mismanaging and further compromising the island's already fragile water system. Alfredo Cuyar (ph) said the drought is a problem but not the only reason people don't have water.
ALFREDO CUYAR: People are suffering in Puerto Rico because of the poor management, ineptitude and incompetence.
FLORIDO: Cuyar leads a coalition of citizens who think the problems began when the governor fired longtime leaders of the water utility and installed people who didn't know how to operate the old and complex network of pipes and valves.
CUYAR: All of the experience, knowledge, expertise went out the door. Well, we've been in a crisis ever since. For 13 months, we've been in the crisis.
FLORIDO: The governor's office did not respond to a request for comment about this accusation, but she and the head of the utility have publicly said they have things under control and are working to improve the system. But by the government's own admission, the water system is in bad shape. A government report found that more than 60% of Puerto Rico's clean water is lost through leaky pipes before it ever reaches people's homes.
(SOUNDBITE OF TOOL SCRAPING THE GROUND)
NOEMI DAVIS: (Speaking Spanish).
FLORIDO: In the community of Rio Piedras, Noemi Davis (ph) is scraping debris away from a little broken pipe in front of the abandoned house next door. It's been leaking for more than a year.
DAVIS: So many people suffering the lack of water, and to see this water just wasting over here is frustrating. It's clean water that some people don't have for many days.
FLORIDO: She says she's been pleading with the water utility, but no one's ever come to fix it. Her husband, Reynaldo Velazquez (ph), says look around. These sorts of leaks are everywhere. And he's right.
REYNALDO VELAZQUEZ: Maybe you'll say, well, it's just a little water coming out, but you multiply that by the thousands coming out in Puerto Rico, then it's going to add up to the problem. So yeah, we need to fix it.
FLORIDO: There will be no quick fix to Puerto Rico's crumbling water system. And because there's not much rain in the forecast, many here are worried about how long the water restrictions will last. Adrian Florido, NPR News, San Juan, Puerto Rico. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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