Tuesday, June 16, 2015

Dos palabras...

Bottled water. It's a need in Puerto Rico, why isn't it being filled?
...at 9 a.m. on Wednesday, June 17, the cities of Bayamón, Cataño, and most parts of Toa Baja and Toa Alta will have to get by without water service for 24 hours, with the hold on supply to be repeated one day later. In other cities that have already had to go one day without water, 160,000 now will have to suffer for two days off and one day on.
Alberto Lázaro, president of the Aqueduct and Sewer Authority (AAA), announced the rationing plan on Monday during a press conference at the shrinking La Plata reservoir.
Two more words; The authority. That is a recipe for shortage--the authority provides all the highway space in American cities, and it's constantly in shortage most days between 6:00 AM-9:00 AM and 4:00 PM-7:00 PM. So why would the authority do any better in Puerto Rico?
Puerto Rico Governor Padilla told a local radio station that the crisis could have been avoided if only there had been enough funds to build a new reservoir on the Valenciano river. In office since January 2013, Padilla says previous administrations failed to build the necessary infrastructure.

Even though;
It won’t be something new for Puerto Ricans, though. According to [lawyer Luis] Dávila, the rationing happens “every five to seven years; it is cyclical.”
And Sr. Davila also says;
... even though the island has several lakes with potential drinking water, they are not connected to enable supply.
They would be, if Puerto Ricans could abolish the authority.

Update: Timothy Taylor, The Conversable Economist, has a post that is more scholarly, on the point;
There are examples of countries that in the past seemed to have plentiful natural supplies of fresh water, but because of poor investments in infrastructure and underpricing of water supplies, find their water sector under considerable stress. Examples include Pakistan and Democratic Republic of Congo. Other countries that lack natural supplies of fresh water have combined investments in infrastructure with pricing practices that have led to much less stress.

No comments:

Post a Comment