SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico \u2014 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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis situation is out of our hands,\u201d Gov. Jenniffer Gonz\u00e1lez said late Tuesday as she blamed weather conditions. \u201cNothing prevents this from worsening.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Experts have predicted a milder 2026 hurricane season, with dry conditions persisting until at least September, said Mar\u00eda Novoa Garc\u00eda, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in San Juan.<\/p>\n
Rainfall in the next two to three weeks will be at least 50% below average, she added.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are seeing that El Ni\u00f1o continues to get stronger,\u201d she said, referencing a natural warming cycle.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
The governor said she doesn\u2019t know how long the rationing measures will remain in place.<\/p>\n
Luis Gonz\u00e1lez Delgado, president of Puerto Rico\u2019s water and sewer system, said large trucks would distribute potable water, with priority given to hospitals and residences for older people.<\/p>\n
Tania Conde Sterling, president of Puerto Rico\u2019s Association of Health Services Administrators, called for calm on Wednesday, saying that hospitals and other health centers are prepared for the rationing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe do not improvise at hospitals,\u201d she said. \u201cWe have manuals of rules and procedures, as well as protocols for every type of scenario.\u201d<\/p>\n
The drought is worsening, but thousands of Puerto Ricans were already experiencing water shortages up to a year before for unknown reasons.<\/p>\n
Among them is 61-year-old community leader Marcia Soler Par\u00eds. She said Wednesday that the rationing measures don\u2019t really mean much because her neighborhood already was experiencing severe water shortages for months.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s chaos,\u201d she said, questioning how Puerto Ricans are supposed to prepare for rationing when they don\u2019t have water now. \u201cIt\u2019s truly pitiful.\u201d<\/p>\n
She worries most about bedridden and older people who are unable to haul heavy water buckets to their homes and apartments.<\/p>\n
The lack of water unrelated to the drought prompted San Juan Mayor Miguel Romero to sue the island\u2019s water and sewer authority in late May, with the governor acknowledging the agency\u2019s infrastructure has lacked investment and maintenance for decades.<\/p>\n
Puerto Rico Rep. Domingo J. Torres Garc\u00eda warned on Wednesday that he would go to court if he doesn\u2019t receive a response from the water and sewer authority about what\u2019s causing the chronic water problems.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe people have the right to know what is happening, what the plans are and what concrete actions are being taken to address this crisis,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Puerto Rico previously implemented rationing measures in 2020 and in 2015, when some 400,000 utility customers received water only every third day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico \u2014 Puerto Rico will implement water rationing measures in San Juan and other major…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":585240,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[246,61,60,82],"class_list":["post-585239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=585239"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585239\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/585240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=585239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=585239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=585239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}