LOIZA, Puerto Rico — Massive damage to Puerto Rico’s water system from Hurricane Maria poses a looming health crisis for island residents exposed to contaminated water, health workers and environmentalists warn.
At least 74 suspected cases of leptospirosis, a dangerous bacteria, have been reported, including two deaths.
“The drinking water system in Puerto Rico was already very fragile,” Olson said.
Alicea said he is not worried about a health crisis because with each delivery, municipal workers emphasize the importance of drinking bottled water.
Iricelis Ortiz, 42, said municipal officials have yet to pass through her neighborhood, so residents organized a committee to ask the city for what they need.
Ortiz worries that the bad-tasting, blue-colored water that runs in her pipes is unsafe.
They had tried boiling it, but “it tasted weird,” Ortiz said.
“While boiling is an easy way to decontaminate water, most people I spoke to either didn’t (have) electricity or cooking gas to get that done,” he said.
Llamara Padró, a nurse at New York’s Upstate University Hospital, who volunteered with a group of 40 nurses organized by the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), said they treated people with gastrointestinal symptoms and conjunctivitis.
“It’s right now a public health crisis,” said Padró, whose group worked in more than a dozen communities across Puerto Rico.