A Call for Accountability, Transparency, and Action on Puerto Rico’s Water Crisis

New York City Bar Association Statement

The New York City Bar Association (the “City Bar”), through its Puerto Rico Task Force, is alarmed by the ongoing water crisis in Puerto Rico.[1] Water shortages have plagued Puerto Ricans for decades, including after Hurricanes Irma and María in 2017. But drought conditions since April 2026—compounded by aging and ill-maintained infrastructure—have intensified already emergency conditions, leading to recurring outages, inadequate water supply, and prolonged interruptions in service. The Puerto Rico Aqueduct and Sewer Authority (“PRASA”) has consistently reported that it loses up to 65% of the water it produces to leaking pipes and overflows.^[2] Allegations of mismanagement at PRASA have compounded these conditions and have led to litigation in both Commonwealth and federal courts.^[3] Now, after the driest July on record,^[4] residents of San Juan and surrounding areas have been forced to ration water on rotating 48-hour periods, or even longer in certain parts of the island,^[5] during which over 180,000 residents have no public access to potable water.^[6]

Reliable access to water is fundamental to public health, human dignity, household stability, and economic activity. The City Bar calls on the federal and Commonwealth governments to account for the decisions, omissions, and failures that have contributed to the continuing deterioration of Puerto Rico’s water system.^[7] Puerto Rico’s territorial status directly implicates Congress’s constitutional responsibilities, and our decision to speak stems in part from our concerns over the fundamental rule-of-law implications of the continued unequal treatment of U.S. citizens residing on the island. Below we describe the water crisis, what has been done (or not done) so far, and our recommendations for addressing this dire and protracted humanitarian emergency.

Solving Puerto Rico’s Water Crisis Requires More Than Emergency Measures

The current emergency has reached communities throughout Puerto Rico’s major metropolitan areas and has fallen hardest on impoverished communities elsewhere on the island. A June 2026 major pipeline failure in San Juan demonstrated the vulnerability of Puerto Rico’s water infrastructure and required emergency government intervention.^[8] As litigation arising from the ongoing crisis has laid bare, such emergency measures have proven insufficient.

The City of San Juan’s May 2026 lawsuit against PRASA illustrates the urgent need for effective accountability and transparency mechanisms around Puerto Rico’s water system. In Municipio Autónomo de San Juan v. Autoridad de Acueductos y Alcantarillados, No. SJ2026CV04320, the San Juan municipal government sought accountability for the water utility’s systemic service failures through the state judicial system, challenging, among other things, the utility’s lack of transparency and ineffective communication. A municipality resorting to judicial relief to obtain information about measures to secure PRASA’s delivery of an essential public service reflects a fundamental failure of accountability by the responsible governmental actors. Residents and municipal officials should not have to sue to obtain basic information, emergency assistance, or other meaningful governmental action to secure access to clean water. The City of San Juan’s lawsuit resulted in a settlement that provides important interim protections but does not resolve the underlying deficiencies in Puerto Rico’s water infrastructure.

The San Juan litigation is not an isolated case, and the accountability gap it exposed is not confined to the Commonwealth courts. The question of legal responsibility for PRASA’s systemic failures is also central to ongoing federal litigation. In Maldonado-González v. Puerto Rico Aqueduct & Sewer Authority, 158 F.4th 27 (1st Cir. 2025), the First Circuit vacated the dismissal of plaintiffs’ substantive due process claim stemming from years of inadequate water service that plaintiffs experienced as residents of Morovis, a rural municipality located in Puerto Rico’s central mountainous region. The First Circuit held that, as alleged, PRASA’s “failure to act over several years is enough to support a claim of conduct that is ‘so egregious[] [and] outrageous[] that it may fairly be said to shock the contemporary conscience.’”^[9] Although the First Circuit did not reach the question of whether every prolonged water outage constitutes a constitutional violation, the court’s ruling demonstrates the legal significance of allegations involving prolonged deprivation of an essential service and deliberate indifference to implementing long-term solutions.

A transparent factual record, which provides a clear roadmap for accountability across all relevant government agencies, is essential to definitively resolving Puerto Rico’s water crisis. Government actors must be able to answer basic questions: When did responsible officials know of the conditions? What information did they possess? What corrective measures were available? What resources were available? What projects were delayed or deferred? What alternatives were considered? What action was taken, and when? These are not merely management questions. They are questions of governmental accountability and the rule of law. They have not been adequately answered in San Juan, in Morovis, or anywhere else in Puerto Rico where water is scarce.

Moreover, the effects of unreliable water service are not distributed equally. Low-income households, rural communities, older adults, people with disabilities, medically vulnerable residents, and small businesses face disproportionate consequences when water service is interrupted. As the First Circuit recognized, “[t]he risks posed by long-term deprivation of potable water are severe and indisputable: water is essential to life, health, and sanitation.”^[10] Any government response must therefore measure not only infrastructure performance but also the human consequences of service failures.

Accountability for the Water Crisis Must Extend Across Government Actors

The City Bar recognizes that responsibility for Puerto Rico’s ongoing water crisis does not rest exclusively with one institution.

PRASA and Commonwealth officials are responsible for the day-to-day operation and maintenance of the water system, including staffing, infrastructure planning, communications, and emergency preparedness. But federal agencies must also be held accountable for aspects of Puerto Rico’s water system within their regulatory and oversight authority, such as the administration of federal infrastructure programs, timely deployment of federal resources and technical assistance, and federal disaster recovery.

The existence of multiple federal and Commonwealth government agencies with jurisdiction over Puerto Rico’s water system does not diminish the agencies’ respective individual responsibility. Where authority is divided, accountability must become more, not less, precise. The effective and prompt recovery of Puerto Rico’s water infrastructure depends on a whole-of-government approach with federal and Commonwealth agencies working in close coordination. Such an approach is necessary so that the relevant agencies operate as a coherent system rather than in isolation. Fragmented authority invites institutions to point fingers at one another while residents remain without reliable access to water.

Indeed, Puerto Rico’s experience after the devastation of Hurricanes Irma and María in 2017 is instructive on this point. Federal reviews conducted by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (“GAO”) after the hurricanes found that Puerto Rico’s recovery was stymied by limited preparedness, staffing and logistical challenges, difficulties coordinating the numerous entities involved in recovery, and opaque access to information.^[11] GAO also found continuing challenges in the administration of federal recovery assistance, including difficulties providing clear guidance and coordinating federal and local efforts. These findings bear directly on the current crisis. Hurricane María severely damaged the island’s centralized drinking-water infrastructure, leaving households without water for 68 days on average.^[12] Further research has documented the continuing vulnerability of Puerto Rico’s centralized water infrastructure and the limitations of a system that depends so heavily on centralized delivery.^[13]

Our Call to Action on Puerto Rico’s Water Crisis

Puerto Rico’s water crisis should not be reduced to a question of whether one agency or one level of government has failed. The deeper problem is a system in which responsibility can become fragmented while the consequences are borne by residents who continue to live without reliable daily access to water. The Commonwealth’s own 2026-2029 PRASA Strategic Plan reflects the need for large-scale capital investment and improved service reliability and system resilience—goals that necessarily depend on effective intergovernmental coordination.^[14] This problem is especially acute in U.S. territories like Puerto Rico, which lack full political representation in the federal government. Accountability requires more than assigning blame. It requires a transparent record of what the relevant governmental actors knew, what they were required and able to do, what they did, what they failed to do, and what they will do next.

The City Bar therefore urges the federal and Commonwealth governments to treat Puerto Rico’s water crisis as an emergency implicating not just public health and access to an essential service but also urgent questions around governmental accountability and civil rights. As a threshold matter, basic governmental accountability in this context demands that every public institution entrusted with guaranteeing access to potable water in Puerto Rico answer for its responsibilities and that the public be able to see, measure, and demand results.

We also urge Congress to act on the crisis through a comprehensive accountability framework. Specifically, we urge the House Committee on Natural Resources, particularly its Subcommittee on Indian and Insular Affairs, and the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, which hold primary congressional jurisdiction over territorial affairs and Puerto Rico, to conduct hearings and oversight concerning the federal government’s role in Puerto Rico’s water crisis.

In line with this comprehensive accountability approach, we recommend that Congress, PRASA, and other relevant federal and Commonwealth agencies take the following additional actions:

Issue a major federal disaster declaration.

Members of Congress should continue to urge the Governor of Puerto Rico to request, and the President to issue a major disaster declaration,[15] which would unlock federal support to remedy this ongoing, and worsening, emergency. This declaration, however, must only be the start of a comprehensive intergovernmental response to the water crisis in Puerto Rico.

Establish a formal public record of responsibility.
Congress and the Governor of Puerto Rico should require PRASA and other relevant federal and Commonwealth agencies to create a public record detailing their respective duties and responsibilities for Puerto Rico’s water system, particularly as to service reliability, infrastructure maintenance, capital investments, and emergency response.

Conduct an independent assessment of Puerto Rico’s water system and audit of federal resources dedicated to maintaining and operating the system.

GAO should examine the condition of Puerto Rico’s water infrastructure, the causes of recurring service failures and water loss, the adequacy of maintenance and capital investment, and the effectiveness of federal assistance. This assessment should also entail an audit of all federal funds directed to Puerto Rico’s water system, including amounts appropriated, disbursed, and expended; the projects for which those funds were designated; project status; and the reasons for significant delays, cancellations, or uncompleted work. Several members of Congress, including Puerto Rico’s Resident Commissioner, recently made a similar request[16] to the Acting Comptroller General of the United States. Additionally, GAO should examine whether federal agencies have effectively coordinated their programs and whether institutional barriers, duplicative requirements, or gaps in authority have impeded necessary repairs and improvements.

Develop a unified water-reliability plan.
Federal and Commonwealth agencies should jointly develop a public, multi-year plan identifying priority infrastructure projects, responsible agencies, funding sources, deadlines, measurable service-reliability standards, emergency protocols, and mechanisms for public reporting in Puerto Rico’s water utility system. This plan should establish objective benchmarks for continuity of service, leak reduction, infrastructure repair, project completion, and emergency water delivery. Progress meeting these benchmarks should be publicly reported at regular intervals.

Require transparent infrastructure and maintenance planning.
PRASA should publish a consolidated assessment addressing deferred maintenance, aging infrastructure, the state of critical pipelines and facilities, staffing needs, equipment replacement, projected capital requirements, and the measures necessary to reduce system vulnerability to drought, extreme weather, and major infrastructure failures.

Protect existing communities as new development proceeds.
Federal, Commonwealth, and municipal authorities should coordinate water-system capacity with approvals for major housing, tourism, industrial, and other projects. Measures should be adopted to mitigate the impact of new development on the availability of reliable water service for nearby communities.

Assess impacts on vulnerable populations.
Authorities should conduct community-impact assessments addressing the effects of outages on low-income households, rural communities, older adults, people with disabilities, medically vulnerable residents, schools, health-care facilities, and small businesses, and adopt specific measures to protect those facing heightened risk.

Strengthen public transparency and access to information.
Residents and municipalities should have timely access to operational data concerning outages, water pressure, water loss, planned repairs, emergency measures, infrastructure projects, funding, and performance. The public should not have to resort to litigation to obtain information concerning an essential public service.

Establish continuing accountability.
Congress should demand periodic reporting from relevant federal and Commonwealth agencies until Puerto Rico’s water system demonstrates measurable and sustained improvements. Reports should identify deficiencies that remain unresolved, explain delays, identify responsible entities, and establish deadlines for corrective actions.

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The water crisis in Puerto Rico is worsening and requires attention, coordination, accountability, and a concrete plan of action to address aging infrastructure and alleviate hardship and suffering across the island. Puerto Rico’s problems are not someone else’s problems. As a U.S. territory, the Commonwealth and its people – who are U.S. citizens – are entitled to the federal government’s support and protection of basic human rights, including access to potable water. The City Bar urges Congress and federal agencies to work with Puerto Rico to develop a concrete plan of action as soon as possible to address this humanitarian crisis, and stands ready to assist in any way we can.

About the Association
The mission of the New York City Bar Association, which was founded in 1870 and has over 20,000 members, is to equip and mobilize a diverse legal profession to practice with excellence, promote reform of the law, and uphold the rule of law and access to justice in support of a fair society and the public interest in our community, our nation, and throughout the world. www.nycbar.org