ADRIAN FLORIDO, HOST:
Puerto Rico is dealing with a severe shortage of running water, so severe that the governor has activated the National Guard to distribute drinking water across the island. The problem's been building for months, caused by ruptures and leaks in Puerto Rico's aging aqueduct system. Workers this week have been scrambling to repair a massive crack in one major pipe that's left tens of thousands of people in and around the capital with no water at all. Here with us now is Jose Luigi (ph), who lives in San Juan and is dealing with the water shortage himself. And, Mr. Luigi, thanks for joining us to share your experience.
JOSE LUIGI: Thanks for having me.
FLORIDO: How long have you not had any water?
LUIGI: I haven't had water for a month and 22 days.
FLORIDO: You haven't had water for almost two months?
LUIGI: Mm-hmm.
FLORIDO: How is that affecting your life?
LUIGI: Well, first of all, like, I had to rearrange how I live my daily life 'cause I have to think about how I'm going to get water, where I'm going to bathe. Luckily, I have - you know, I have family and friends that some of them have water, not all of them. And so I can bathe at their house, or I can, like, you know, get water from them. It's also, you know, doing a lot for my mental health. And, like, I've had a lot of crying spells. And it's really - it's - and anxiety, and it's really hard to think about the future when I have to think about the present. I work from home, so, like, I have to figure out how to do my basic needs and, like, what I'm going to do with that. Or should I wait till the end of the day and, like, find...
FLORIDO: To use the bathroom?
LUIGI: ...Somewhere else to - yeah, to use the bathroom. Before, I would use my evenings for relaxing, or I would - I also have multiple jobs. So sometimes I would work in the evenings, and now I can't do that. So it's just like - it's been very disruptive, and it's been really hard to just, like, exist in our daily, like - yeah, daily life.
FLORIDO: And I understand that you live in the Santurce neighborhood, like, in the heart of the capital city, San Juan. Do you have any sense of why you, specifically, don't have water?
LUIGI: They keep telling us, like, oh, it's this thing, and then they fix it. And we don't have - but we still don't want water. And then they tell us it's another thing. And so, like, this has been the case for the past almost two months, where they keep saying it's something, and that's not the problem. A lot of us think that they know what the problem is, but they don't want to tell us. The problem with water, even though it's worse now, it's been - we've had interrupted service for over a year now. So the problem has persisted for that amount of time. So, like, we know there's, like, a bigger problem happening, but that's not being fixed.
FLORIDO: I understand that you are a psychologist.
LUIGI: Yeah.
FLORIDO: Can you talk with me about the mental toll on you, the mental toll on your patients?
LUIGI: So I see a lot of my work right now being around how to learn to live with the current situation. With my neighbors, I see a lot of depression. There's a lot of jokes going around where it's like, oh, maybe I'll go to a psych hospital because I'll have water and electricity, which is, you know, really sad to hear, even as a joke. So it's devastating. As a psychologist, it also feels a little hopeless because we can help people manage, you know, their sadness or anxiety, but it's really heartbreaking to also have them adapt to this. Like, nobody should have to adapt to these problems.
FLORIDO: Puerto Rico's governor said today that repairs to this big crack that they discovered in a big pipe over the weekend - the repairs have been completed. Are you hopeful that you might get water back soon, that your life might soon return to normal?
LUIGI: I, generally, don't feel hopeful. The problem you just mentioned is pretty recent. And so a lot of people lost water, let's say, a week ago, but our problem has - like, it's been longer than that. So before this interview, I saw that they reported how they found another area in San Juan where there is a leak, and they said they're not going to repair it because to repair that, they would have to, like, stall some of the other repairs that are happening. And so as they fix things, they find other problems. So I don't really - I don't feel hopeful at all.
FLORIDO: Well, I do hope that you find some relief very soon. I've been speaking with Jose Luigi. He lives in San Juan, Puerto Rico and has been coping with the island's severe water shortages. Mr. Luigi, thank you so much.
LUIGI: Thank you.
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