Puerto Rico is rationing water, but many residents stopped trusting the tap long before the drought

More than 180,000 customers in San Juan and six municipalities have faced 48-hour rotating water outages since August 7, 2026, blamed officially on record drought and a June rupture of the aging Superaqueduct. Governor Jenniffer González called the situation 'out of our hands.'

But PRASA, the government-owned water utility, lost 267 million of 513 million gallons produced daily to pipe leaks in fiscal 2024 — nearly half its output — according to Puerto Rico's federally appointed oversight board, with only a 6% reduction in losses since 2019. The EPA estimates $2.2 billion is needed for distribution and transmission repairs, far more than the utility receives.

Many of the outages predate the official rationing: one San Juan neighborhood counted 123 outage-days in the 13 months before the current schedule began. A 2022 survey found 64% of residents in three regions mistrust their tap water outright, citing smell, color, illness, and years of unresolved EPA violations.

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