Puerto Rico Gov. Wanda Vázquez Garced has declared a state of emergency in Puerto Rico, and water will now be rationed on parts of the island, with some families getting water just every other day. This is taking place in the midst of the COVID-19 epidemic, when frequent hand-washing is particularly important. There is also a severe drought in the U.S. Virgin Islands, which has been completely ignored by mainland mainstream media.
Predictably, there has not been a word about any of this from the resident of the Oval Office, or from his Republican enablers in the Senate, some of whom claim to “care about Puerto Rico” when they want votes, but do nothing to alleviate the problems on the island, or to actually get the funds already allocated by Congress to the island.
The Los Angeles Times explains the new protocol in Puerto Rico.
Starting July 2, nearly 140,000 clients, including some in the capital of San Juan, will be without water for 24 hours every other day as part of strict rationing measures. Puerto Rico’s utilities company urged people to not excessively stockpile water because it would worsen the situation, and officials asked that everyone use masks and maintain social distancing if they seek water from one of 23 water trucks set up across the island. [...]
More than 26% of the island is experiencing a severe drought and another 60% is under a moderate drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. Water rationing measures affecting more than 16,000 clients were imposed this month in some communities in the island’s northeast region.
Gov. Wanda Vázquez said 21 of 78 municipalities are affected by severe drought while another 29 by moderate drought. An additional 12 municipalities face abnormally dry conditions. The worst of the drought is concentrated in Puerto Rico’s southern region, which continues to be affected by aftershocks following a magnitude 6.0 earthquake that hit in early January and caused millions of dollars in damage.
Dánica Coto dives deeper into the restrictions, writing for the Associated Press.
An administrative order signed Monday prohibits certain activities in most municipalities including watering gardens during daylight hours, filling pools and using a hose or non-recycled water to wash cars. Those caught face fines ranging from $250 for residents to $2,500 for industries for a first violation.
Vázquez’s announcement comes amid criticism of her administration for not dredging reservoirs, which would eliminate sediment and avoid excess loss of water. Pagán said the utilities company has been in conversation with the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency since Hurricane Maria about a $300 million dredging investment. She blamed the lengthy process on the number of studies and analysis needed and that require FEMA’s approval.
The upcoming water rationing measures will affect clients who are connected to the Carraízo reservoir, one of 11 that Puerto Rico’s government operates. Pagán said that reservoir was last dredged in the late 1990s. Five other reservoirs are under a state of observation. Officials have already taken other measures, including activating water wells and transferring more than 30,000 clients from Carraízo to another reservoir.
Here’s an interesting, if disturbing, bit of information.
I doubt seriously that most people on the island can afford to buy from water trucks, however the trucks may find customers among the big hotels and tourism businesses.
While there has been some mainstream coverage of the Vázquez announcement, what is disturbing for me is the lack of news on the U.S. Virgin Islands, except from Caribbean sources—including from Caribbean Climate Hub, which currently has only 885 Twitter followers.
I just had a conversation about the glaring omission.
As a young person, I used to spend part of my summers visiting a cousin in St. Thomas. Though the big hotels could afford to buy water shipped in on barges from Puerto Rico, most islanders depended on rain water captured by cisterns, which are now mandated by law. There now are also ”reverse osmosis desalinization plants.”
In the Virgin Islands more than 90% of the population utilize rainwater harvesting. This practice involves collecting rain from rooftops and storing it in cisterns, usually built into the house foundation. During times of heavy rainfall the cisterns may overflow and run-off. On the other hand, in times of low water levels residents may need to purchase water from private vendors, which can be costly and difficult for those living in hard to reach areas…
As climate change continues to impact the Caribbean region, annual precipitation is expected to decrease by 10% by 2050. This can exacerbate issues of water scarcity and can have negative impacts on agriculture and society.
St. Thomas Source notes that this drought is historic.
The territory has battled various droughts over the decade, some years more severe than others, but even after significant rainfall over the last couple weeks the territory is now considered to be in a severe drought according to the United States Drought Monitor Map.
Director of the Green Caribbean Center at the University of the Virgin Islands Greg Guannel said the territory will be breaking a record this year, with the past few months the driest ever reported.
Non-voting Democratic Rep. Stacy Plaskett just spoke out about the need for aid to the USVI.
The droughts currently affecting both territories need to be addressed, given that future droughts will more than likely be worse. It isn’t like this wasn’t predicted—just read Alexander Kaufman’s in-depth story in HuffPost from November 2019 which notes that “lax regulation, austerity and climate change are setting the stage for another catastrophe.”
This is a disaster that predates the 2017 hurricanes that exposed both the island’s deteriorating living standards and the lethal fragility of its water systems. For decades, this farming region turned industrial hub has tapped the aquifer that stretches more than 50 miles along the southern coast here. But stresses on the once-mighty South Coast basin are mounting. Real estate developers are paving over land that once absorbed rain and recharged the groundwater below. Pollution is contaminating the dwindling supply of freshwater. Agribusiness giants operate with near impunity as austerity renders overextended regulators ineffective.
All the while the planet is getting hotter, propelling Puerto Rico toward more catastrophic droughts and rising seas that gush saltwater into coastal aquifers. “Where there is rain deficit, there is saline intrusion, especially in a coastal aquifer,” said José M. Rodríguez, a retired U.S. Geological Survey hydrologist who studied the aquifer for 31 years. “The problem of climate change will worsen the situation.”
Lax regulation, decaying public infrastructure and an ongoing debt crisis have left the troubled U.S. possession incapable of reliably delivering water to all its 3.2 million residents. Less than half the water the public utility treats makes it to ratepayers, and nearly all of that which does is of dubious quality, compelling only the most desperate Puerto Ricans to drink what flows from the tap. The most obvious solution is a total overhaul. But the colonial government, hounded by Wall Street creditors and in a state of chaotic quasi-bankruptcy, can barely keep the lights on, stoking fears that profiteers looking to buy up the indebted public power company may target water services next.
Those profiteers have already scooped up the island’s power company.
Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, the state-owned power monopoly, has awarded $4.4 billion in contracts to companies hired to repair the extensive damage to the island’s aging electrical grid. But outages are an enduring and lethal fact of life in Puerto Rico, where the grid remains fragile. An earthquake in January 2020 plunged the island into darkness once again, and now they are looking at a hurricane season forecast to be one of the most active in years.
A joint analysis by HuffPost and NBCLX finds that the vast majority of grid reconstruction-related contracts have gone to American firms, including fossil fuel companies, construction firms connected to the Trump administration and consultants such as former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R). Of the publicly available information on deals awarded since 2017, mainland U.S. contractors received roughly 84%, totaling $3.7 billion.
PREPA, meanwhile, is currently hammering out a deal to hand over control of the electrical distribution system for 15 years to a trio of private operators: Houston-based grid manager Quanta Services, North Carolina-headquartered disaster response firm IEM, and ATCO Ltd., a gas firm based in Calgary, Canada. That contract has not yet been released.
Professor J.Meléndez-Badillo expresses how a lot of people are feeling right now.
I echo that: ¿Algo más?
Anything else?