Water for Us

Since our last report, the initiatives to strengthen the community aqueducts have achieved significant progress. The community aqueducts are the only source of drinking water for hundreds of vulnerable communities on the island, and their challenges increased after Hurricane María, the earthquakes, and the COVID-19 pandemic.

To support the operations of these community structures during the Covid-19 emergency, Fundación Comunitaria de Puerto Rico (FCPR) awarded 13 grants to same number of aqueducts. The greatest need of these community organizations was personal protection equipment and products to chlorinate the water. From those, seven received grants from FCPR for the first time, and are in remote communities in the towns of Yabucoa, Orocovis, Barranquitas, San Lorenzo, and Caguas.

The thirteen grantees are: Acueducto Comunitario Algarrobo, Acueducto Rural Comunidades Especiales Bayamoncito, Inc., Cuyon Water Services, Inc., Asoc. De Vecinos del Sector Los Oquendo Bo. Hato Arriba de San Lorenzo, Inc., Acueducto Pellejas, Inc., Acueducto Saltos Pellejas, Inc., Acueducto Sector Pachín, Inc., Comunidad Limones, Inc., Acueducto Comunidad Tortuguero La Tiza, Inc., Acueducto Rural El Manantial, Inc., Comunidad Corujas, Inc., Acueductos Barrio Guayabota Yabucoa, Inc., and Asociación Residentes de Villas de Oro, Inc.

On the other hand, Fundación Comunitaria de Puerto Rico received a grant of $1.7 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to execute the first phase of a mitigation project, focus on strengthening or incorporate solar infrastructure in the 242 community aqueducts of the island in order to avoid the interruption of these systems that provide water to thousands of families -the total amount granted to this project was $25 million. This first phase should end in May 2021. It includes recruitment, execution plan, feasibility analysis, and environmental impact. Besides, the FCPR was also awarded with a grant of $150,000 from the Center for Disaster Philanthropy (CDP) to strengthen five or seven community aqueducts in the South part of Puerto Rico, affected by the earthquakes of 2020. This project should benefit 500 residents. In this zone, there are 31 community aqueducts.

All these initiatives are part of Agua Pa’Nosotros, a program of the FCPR started in 2017 to strengthen the community aqueducts of the island. It has counted with the generous support of the organizations above and Oxfam, Hispanic Federation, and Conrad N. Hilton Foundation. Nevertheless, to continue strengthening these community structures is indispensable to facilitate more support for infrastructure issues, compliance, community organizations, and management.  

Community aqueducts in Puerto Rico are resilient community structures that continue to operate amid difficult times.

It is no news to everyone around the globe that 2020 has been a challenging year in many aspects of our social, political, and environmental context. Puerto Rico has not been the exception, as we started the year with a major earthquake affecting the whole island and leaving it without power and some areas without water, it was the South Region of the island that felt the damages and the devastating human impact of this natural phenomenon. Many are still homeless in the region and are feeling daily replicas and tremors, some are still felt islandwide. Then came the pandemic and most recently the heavy rains from Isaías and Laura storms. 

During these difficult times, community aqueducts have provided their community with access to drinkable water, now more than ever they have been very active to supply for the thousands of families they serve and are complying with the home lockdown. As the center of many communities, some have become an operating arm to provide food and education on prevention and containment of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since Hurricane María, Fundación Comunitaria de Puerto Rico has been in contact with 102 community aqueducts, providing grants to 20 and direct technical assistance to 50.  

We recently received the announcement from FEMA of a grant to work on providing solar energy infrastructure to the 242 community aqueducts on the island. However, there are still other uncover needs such as the acquisition of water tanks and the rehabilitation of their water wells.

Our work with these community structures over the past years has been possible thanks to our donors: Hispanic Federation, Oxfam, Central Florida Foundation, Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, and the many donors that have supported through the GlobalGiving crowdfunding platform.

Thanks to a grant from GlobalGiving we are working to establish a permanent coalition of community aqueducts to come together to share experiences, challenges and join efforts to find common solutions. All these would have not been possible with the participation of so many collaborators.