Gloriany Baba woke up to no running water as the Puerto Rico water crisis entered a new phase Friday, when a rationing plan took effect across San Juan and nearby communities. The measure affects more than 180,000 customer accounts and splits customers into two groups that will alternate without water for at least 48 hours at a time.
“It’s brutal,” Baba said, describing the situation to CBS News in Spanish. “It’s unbelievable to live through this today.”
San Juan accounts and outages
The rationing reaches more than 180,000 customer accounts in San Juan and six other municipalities, cutting off households and businesses on a rotating schedule. Officials have warned the outages could stretch to 72 hours at a time, but government officials have not said when the rationing will end.
In San Juan, residents have already been dealing with intermittent service, full-day shutoffs and very low pressure. Communities in San Juan documented at least 118 days in 2026 with repeated water outages before the rationing began.
Jenniffer González and the drought
Governor Jenniffer González acknowledged years of neglect, but blamed the current problem on the weather. The rationing is taking place as about 36% of Puerto Rico faces a severe drought and another 32% is in a moderate drought.
Ada Monzon, chief meteorologist at local station WAPA-TV, said the drought will not ease quickly. “It’s not going to take one tropical system. It’s going to take many tropical systems and the winter precipitation for us to get out of this drought crisis,” she said.
Poorer households feel the strain
Puerto Rico’s water system is also burdened by decades of underinvestment, deferred maintenance and aging infrastructure. The island’s water authority says roughly 65% of the water it produces is lost or goes unbilled, much of it through leaks and aging pipes.
Low-income Puerto Ricans are spending money on bottled water, and the elderly are relying on neighbors and family to carry water to them. Puerto Rico previously implemented rationing measures in 2020 and in 2015, when some 400,000 utility customers received water only every third day.
The new schedule leaves people in San Juan planning around the shutoffs instead of around a normal tap. For now, the only firm timetable is the one that alternates water service every 48 hours, with the possibility of 72-hour outages if conditions worsen.
