{"id":807262,"date":"2026-07-17T06:08:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T06:08:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/807262\/"},"modified":"2026-07-17T06:08:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T06:08:12","slug":"puerto-ricans-face-water-rationing-as-drought-worsens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/807262\/","title":{"rendered":"Puerto Ricans face water rationing as drought worsens"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) \u2014 Puerto Rico announced water rationing measures on Thursday as a drought grips the U.S. territory<\/a>, worsening chronic water shortages that have forced the governor to declare a state of emergency.<\/p>\n

Thousands of people in the island\u2019s northeast region face 48-hour rationing periods from Friday, said Luis Gonz\u00e1lez, executive president of the island\u2019s water and sewer authority.<\/p>\n

The rationing program will affect several communities in the cities of Canovanas and Rio Grande as temperatures keep rising.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s just not enough water,\u201d he said, adding that rationing will likely be extended to other areas.<\/p>\n

Gonz\u00e1lez blamed a lack of rain, although severe water shortages<\/a> began affecting some of the island\u2019s most populated areas months before the drought began, with officials yet to identify the problem.<\/p>\n

Those outages prompted the mayor of San Juan to sue the island\u2019s Water and Sewer Authority in late May, with Gov. Jenniffer Gonz\u00e1lez<\/a> acknowledging that the agency\u2019s infrastructure has lacked investment and maintenance for decades.<\/p>\n

Almost 40,000 customers were left without water last month, leading Gonz\u00e1lez to activate the National Guard. That outage was not tied to the current drought.<\/p>\n

The U.S. Drought Monitor says 14% of Puerto Rico is currently under a severe drought and another 59% under a moderate drought, up from 18% in late June. Around 2.3 million people out of Puerto Rico\u2019s 3.2 million inhabitants are currently living in a region affected by drought, it estimates.<\/p>\n

Previous droughts<\/a> have forced Puerto Rico to implement strict rationing measures. In 2016, some 400,000 utility customers received water only every third day.<\/p>\n

Those hit by water shortages have organized protests, while a growing number of legislators are demanding answers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s happening with the Puerto Rico Water and Sewer Authority cannot be attributed solely to the drought,\u201d said Rep. Domingo J. Torres. \u201cWhat we\u2019re seeing is a management that improvises, that reacts only when the crisis is already upon us, and that has failed to present a clear plan to guarantee access to drinking water.\u201d<\/p>\n

Torres filed a formal request on Wednesday for information about what actions the water and sewer authority is taking to confront the drought and ensure access to potable water, among other things.<\/p>\n

A spokesman for Puerto Rico\u2019s water and sewer agency did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

Legislators also held a public hearing this week on the financial impact of water shortages on an island with a nearly 40% poverty rate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) \u2014 Puerto Rico announced water rationing measures on Thursday as a drought grips…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":807263,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[49,48,25226,2848,2847,58903,295,2841,799,283564,29522,66,58296,883],"class_list":["post-807262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-central-america","tag-climate","tag-climate-and-environment","tag-droughts","tag-environment","tag-general-news","tag-latin-america","tag-luis-gonzlez","tag-puerto-rico","tag-science","tag-water-shortages","tag-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=807262"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807262\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/807263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=807262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=807262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=807262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}