Congress Has a Responsibility to Reverse the Water Crisis It Caused in Puerto Rico
The air in Puerto Rico is thick with the vibrant, unmistakable rhythm of life. Parrots cut bright streaks across the sky from roof to roof, and iguanas bask lazily on the grass. But the more telling sounds of daily life are the water trucks lumbering through neighborhoods — or the hollow, dry hiss of household pipes when the taps give out yet again.
Nearly nine years after Hurricane Maria tore through the island, a dangerous myth persists: that Puerto Rico’s ongoing humanitarian crisis is a failure of local resilience or an unavoidable consequence of climate change. This is a lie.
What the island is suffering from is not a lack of fortitude, but a manufactured financial chokehold. While Congress has technically allocated over $42.5 billion in disaster relief to the island, the federal government’s bureaucratic neglect — and restrictive conditions — have actively broken the infrastructure meant to sustain human life.
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