Water for Us

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.