{"id":520236,"date":"2026-08-08T08:46:24","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T12:46:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.net\/en\/uncategorized\/more-than-500000-people-in-puerto-rico-are-facing-water-rationing-due-to-the-drought\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T08:46:24","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T12:46:24","slug":"more-than-500000-people-in-puerto-rico-are-facing-water-rationing-due-to-the-drought","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/uncategorized\/more-than-500000-people-in-puerto-rico-are-facing-water-rationing-due-to-the-drought\/","title":{"rendered":"More than 500,000 people in Puerto Rico are facing water rationing due to the drought"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

San Juan\/Trujillo Alto.- <\/strong>With as much water stored as possible, more than 500,000 people in Puerto Rico are facing rationing imposed by the Government due to low levels in the island’s main reservoir, which supplies at least seven municipalities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The adjustment plan is due to the fact that the level of the Carra\u00edzo reservoir, in Trujillo Alto -a city adjacent to San Juan- is located at less than 38 meters, falling into the zone called ‘operational adjustments’, in the island’s first major drought since 2015.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Upon entering said phase, the Government and the Aqueduct and Sewer Authority (AAA) decided to ration water in 48-hour shifts for the municipalities of San Juan, Trujillo Alto, Carolina, Can\u00f3vanas, Lo\u00edza, Gurabo, and Juncos, which have about 183,000 subscriber households and businesses, bringing the number of those affected to half a million people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pessimism regarding the drought on the island<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Drought conditions are already affecting 80% of Puerto Rico’s territory, and in the southern strip of the center and west, it has been classified as extreme, after the island suffered its driest July since records began in 1899, with only 0.54 inches of rainfall, 9% of normal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I have a feeling this is going to take a while,” Elena Cabrera, a resident of the metropolitan area, told EFE as she left a supermarket where she had gone to buy bottled water for her two elderly neighbors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cabrera stated that he had prepared by storing and buying water before the rationing announcement, which he blamed in part on the current government, past leaders, and AAA executives for “the bad decisions” they have made regarding the system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They divide those affected into two zones<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

To alleviate the situation, the AAA located 35 oases in San Juan, Carolina, Trujillo Alto, Lo\u00edza, and Can\u00f3vanas, and divided the scheduled interruption plan into two zones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We recommend reading: Trump tries again to limit birthright citizenship despite Supreme Court ruling<\/a><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Zone 1 will have service on Friday and Saturday and will be without water on Sunday, while Zone 2 had its supply interrupted at 6:00 local time on Friday (10:00 GMT).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, to the despair of the residents of zone 1, the water supply was not resumed as stipulated since, due to a breakdown last week, it is necessary to wait for the tanks to fill up to begin receiving drinking water, the AAA explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The drought has caused dead fish to be seen on the shore of the Carra\u00edzo reservoir and has led people like Yadalis Gonz\u00e1lez Mel\u00e9ndez to fish on the rocks that are exposed hundreds of meters from the floodgates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gonz\u00e1lez Mel\u00e9ndez expressed to EFE his concern about the low levels of the reservoir and commented that the lack of water has caused a decrease in the number of fish that usually swim there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rationing could increase and spread<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The drought is occurring in the midst of the El Ni\u00f1o climate phenomenon, associated with an increase in temperatures, which is expected to intensify in the August-October period, which will contribute to changes in precipitation patterns, according to the World Meteorological Organization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With these forecasts, the Government, which declared a state of emergency for water usage at the end of July, has warned that it is possible that scheduled water supply interruptions may extend to other municipalities on the island.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to Carra\u00edzo, the Cidra reservoir has also had to make operational adjustments, and five others are under observation and may need similar adjustments soon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In turn, the rationing plan was divided into two phases. Phase 1, which went into effect today, consists of scheduled interruptions every 48 hours, and phase 2 will establish a single day with supply and three without service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This lack of water affects homes, businesses, and also schools, which will operate on rationing days with reduced hours, and it is not ruled out that they may end up holding classes virtually, just as it happened during the pandemic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

San Juan\/Trujillo Alto.- With as much water stored as possible, more than 500,000 people in Puerto Rico are facing rationing imposed by the Government due to low levels in the island’s main reservoir, which supplies at least seven municipalities. The adjustment plan is due to the fact that the level of the Carra\u00edzo reservoir, in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":133559,"featured_media":520237,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-520236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/phj1q1-2bkU","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/08\/Puerto_Rico_sequia.webp","dum_api":{"author_name":"Preciosa Jimenez","author_image":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/cropped-WhatsApp-Image-2026-05-26-at-5.31.56-PM-96x96.jpeg","categories_name":["Uncategorized"],"featured_media_url":"https:\/\/cdn.deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/08\/Puerto_Rico_sequia.webp"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/133559"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=520236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520236\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/520237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=520236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=520236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=520236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}