Puerto Rico's water utility is losing more than half of the water it treats before it ever reaches a customer, a longstanding problem now drawing fresh scrutiny as rotating rationing drags into its second month across San Juan and six neighboring municipalities. Reservoirs remain critically low, and residents, union workers and federal lawmakers are increasingly asking why the system was this fragile before the drought ever began.
A Utility Losing More Water Than It Delivers
The Puerto Rico Aqueduct and Sewer Authority, known as PRASA, operates eight dams, more than 100 filtration plants, thousands of storage tanks and roughly 21,000 miles of pipeline serving about 3.2 million people, according to a letter Democratic members of Congress sent the U.S. Government Accountability Office in August. That same letter noted failing pipelines routinely leak away roughly half of the territory's treated water, a figure that roughly matches earlier estimates from civil engineers who have long flagged corroded mains, inaccurate meters and unauthorized connections as chronic drains on the system.
Rationing Drags Into a Second Month
PRASA began an alternating 48-hour water schedule on August 8 covering San Juan, Carolina, Trujillo Alto, Canóvanas, Gurabo, Juncos and Loíza, affecting more than 180,000 customers and an estimated half a million residents. The move followed San Juan's driest July in more than 120 years and came as the U.S. Drought Monitor classified roughly two-thirds of the island under moderate to severe drought. Gov. Jenniffer González-Colón, who declared a state of emergency in late July, told reporters at the time that "this situation is out of our hands," blaming persistent dry conditions for the shortages.
Emergency Response Strains Public Resources
The National Guard has been deployed to circulate water tankers through affected neighborhoods, while the Federal Emergency Management Agency has sent trailers to supplement local distribution. The U.S. Department of Agriculture separately approved a drought disaster declaration covering dozens of municipalities, opening relief for farmers and ranchers who have lost pasture and delayed planting. PRASA has said water trucks are prioritizing hospitals, dialysis centers and households with older or bedridden residents, though officials have repeatedly said they cannot predict when normal service will resume.
Workers and Residents Push Back
Frustration has spilled beyond the reservoirs. Unionized PRASA employees went on strike in recent weeks, arguing they can no longer get by on wages of roughly $10.50 an hour while working extended hours during the crisis. San Juan's mayor filed suit against the utility earlier this year over recurring outages that predated the drought, and residents have staged protests outside government buildings accusing officials of failing to give clear, consistent notice about which neighborhoods will lose water and when.
Federal Auditors Take a Closer Look
The scrutiny has reached Washington. In their August letter, congressional Democrats asked the GAO to examine how roughly $9 billion in federal funding sent to Puerto Rico since Hurricane Maria — through FEMA, the EPA, HUD and USDA — has been spent on water infrastructure repairs, and why the system remains this vulnerable to a single dry season. The request echoes broader questions federal lawmakers have raised in recent months about oversight of public funds on the island.
Experts Say the Fix Is Bigger Than Rain
Civil engineer Carlos Pesquera, who is advising the governor on the crisis, has told reporters that while drought triggered the current emergency, it doesn't fully explain the system's underlying fragility, pointing instead to "aging infrastructure, significant water losses" and a lack of redundancy across the network. Water policy specialists have floated a mix of longer-term fixes, including replacing corroded mains, dredging sediment-clogged reservoirs to restore lost storage capacity, and studying desalination as a supplemental source for an island surrounded by seawater — though experts caution no single project will resolve the shortfall on its own.
With federal forecasters projecting drought conditions to persist into the fall, PRASA has not set a firm date for ending the rationing schedule. For many residents, that uncertainty has turned what began as an emergency measure into a test of whether the island's leaders will finally commit to the sustained investment engineers have called for since long before this summer's dry spell.
