By DÁNICA COTO
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Puerto Rico will implement water rationing measures in San Juan and other major cities as a drought grips the U.S. territory with no relief in sight.
More than 180,000 customers will be without water for 48 hours at a time starting Friday as part of an alternating schedule while Puerto Rico scrambles to find a solution to the deepening crisis as extreme heat warnings persist.
“This situation is out of our hands,” Gov. Jenniffer González said late Tuesday as she blamed weather conditions. “Nothing prevents this from worsening.”
July was the driest month on record for San Juan in more than 120 years and the second hottest for the capital. Almost 25% of Puerto Rico is experiencing a severe drought and another 36% is under a moderate drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.
Experts have predicted a milder 2026 hurricane season, with dry conditions persisting until at least September, said María Novoa García, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in San Juan.
Rainfall in the next two to three weeks will be at least 50% below average, she added.
“We are seeing that El Niño continues to get stronger,” she said, referencing a natural warming cycle.
In addition to affecting parts of San Juan, the rationing will extend to certain neighborhoods in the cities of Carolina, Juncos, Gurabo, Trujillo Alto, Canovanas and Loiza.
The governor said she doesn’t know how long the rationing measures will remain in place.
Luis González Delgado, president of Puerto Rico’s water and sewer system, said large trucks would distribute potable water, with priority given to hospitals and residences for older people.
Tania Conde Sterling, president of Puerto Rico’s Association of Health Services Administrators, called for calm on Wednesday, saying that hospitals and other health centers are prepared for the rationing.
“We do not improvise at hospitals,” she said. “We have manuals of rules and procedures, as well as protocols for every type of scenario.”
The drought is worsening, but thousands of Puerto Ricans were already experiencing water shortages up to a year before for unknown reasons.
Among them is 61-year-old community leader Marcia Soler París. She said Wednesday that the rationing measures don’t really mean much because her neighborhood already was experiencing severe water shortages for months.
“It’s chaos,” she said, questioning how Puerto Ricans are supposed to prepare for rationing when they don’t have water now. “It’s truly pitiful.”
She worries most about bedridden and older people who are unable to haul heavy water buckets to their homes and apartments.
The lack of water unrelated to the drought prompted San Juan Mayor Miguel Romero to sue the island’s Water and Sewer Authority in late May, with the governor acknowledging the agency’s infrastructure has lacked investment and maintenance for decades.
Puerto Rico Rep. Domingo J. Torres García warned on Wednesday that he would go to court if he doesn’t receive a response from the water and sewer authority about what’s causing the chronic water problems.
“The people have the right to know what is happening, what the plans are and what concrete actions are being taken to address this crisis,” he said.
Puerto Rico previously implemented rationing measures in 2020 and in 2015, when some 400,000 utility customers received water only every third day.