Governor of Puerto Rico Declares State of Emergency Due to Water Crisis

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – The governor of Puerto Rico last Wednesday declared a state of emergency and activated the National Guard after thousands of homes were left without water.

Governor Jennifer GonzalesLate last week, approximately 180,000 customers were affected at the peak of the outage and on Wednesday,  nearly 3,000 customers were still without water, including several hotels. 

Governor Jenniffer González says the problem has angered the population as the state water and sewer authority has declined to name the company responsible for damaging a main water line while repairing a road last week.

Municipal officials have set up water distribution points and have gone home-to-home to distribute drinking water, with the National Guard now expected to help with those duties.

As long as I have 11 hotels without water and residents without service, of course we have an emergency,” González said.

The governor also named a special coordinator charged with stabilizing the water system, investigating the water and sewer authority and determining how the incident occurred.

He is expected to issue a report in the next 10 days.