But even before a Category 4 hurricane slammed the U.S. territory, the island’s water supply was in serious trouble.
Some 55 percent of Puerto Ricans still don’t have access to drinking water as of Saturday, and concerns are rising over the potential for waterborne illnesses.
In 2015, nearly 70 percent of the population got their water from sources that violated federal health standards in 2015.
We’re spending money to turn the power back on. To give people drinking water,” Schumer said at a press conference Tuesday.
Puerto Rico is “unfortunately reflective of a system that broke down and a lack of investment in the infrastructure and provision of clean water, compounded by most likely an island system that’s really complicated,” Burke, who previously worked for the Environmental Protection Agency, said.
This could include typhoid and the remote possibility of cholera, according to Hotez.
Now, Puerto Rico is in the long process of recovering from the hurricane, and there’s the hope the water systems will be improved from even before the hurricane.
“We need an investment from the federal government in Puerto Rico’s drinking water systems, in rebuilding Puerto Rico’s infrastructure the right way,” Quintero said.