Weeks without running water have pushed Puerto Rico to a breaking point. Residents scramble to fill cisterns, businesses hemorrhage money on emergency supplies, and the island's water utility faces mounting pressure to explain why basic service has become a luxury.
Jonathan Collazo runs two restaurants on Calle Loíza, a popular dining strip in San Juan, and he is living the crisis daily. To keep the bathrooms functioning and water running for customers, he fills two cisterns, including a 1,000-gallon tank that empties every two days. Each refill costs about $300. On a single Thursday, he spent $600 just to maintain operations. When the logistics become impossible, he closes bathrooms entirely.
"We were without water for more than 50 days here on Calle Loíza," Collazo said. The problems began in May and have continued with only brief stretches of reliable service. "Customers are confused. It's not just me, it's all the businesses next door. If it were one week or two weeks, fine. But this is as if a hurricane had passed."
A nearby coffee shop kept a public tally on its front window, marking each day without water. Kali Solack, who co-owns Café Regina and Hilda Deli, said she is "battling two businesses with no water." The shops spend roughly $300 daily on emergency supplies, on top of costs for disposable items. "I feel like there really hasn't been much communication about why our area has been without water for so long," she said.
The root cause traces to June, when a rupture ruptured a 72-inch pipeline known as the Superaqueduct in Bayamón, triggering severe disruptions. Since then, problems at water treatment plants and reservoirs have compounded the shortage. The government has not publicly detailed why the outage has become so severe.
The crisis extends far beyond restaurants and shops. Across San Juan, Loíza, Guaynabo, Bayamón and other municipalities, water service remains interrupted. The governor activated the national guard to distribute drinking water across the territory, setting up distribution stations in densely populated areas. But after weeks of hunting for water to bathe, flush toilets and drink, many Puerto Ricans say they have had enough.
Residents are paying a steep price. Some buy bottled water by the gallon. Others rearrange their entire day to collect water from distribution stations. Those unable to travel can request deliveries through their municipal emergency management office. The burden falls hardest on households without cisterns, a costly investment beyond reach for many on an island of 3.2 million people where more than 40 percent live below the poverty line.
Marta Acevedo, 75, lives in a San Juan apartment complex with two cisterns that are consistently refilled. Yet she still schedules her day around the limited windows when the building turns on the water. After 44 years in the same building, she said this is the longest stretch without reliable running water she has experienced, surpassing even the devastation from Hurricane María in 2017.
San Juan's mayor, Miguel Romero, sued Puerto Rico's Water and Sewer Authority in late May over the outages. The water shortages have hit as parts of the archipelago face drought conditions from prolonged rainfall deficits, adding strain as the island enters hurricane season, which runs from June through November.
Author James Rodriguez: "This isn't a temporary inconvenience anymore, it's a catastrophic failure of basic infrastructure that's turning daily life upside down for millions."
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