When I went down to Puerto Rico in January, I was shocked to learn how many communities were still without power, water and basic needs.
Although most coastal areas like Rincón were back up on their feet, it only required a short trip inland to see the destruction that remained. Homes and entire communities to this day remain isolated, without dependable sources of clean water or electricity.
Hurricane Maria was a rallying call-to-action for the Surfrider’s Rincón Chapter Blue Water Task Force (BWTF). Although chapter volunteers struggled with the same difficult post-storm conditions as the rest of the island, they partnered with other local groups to restart their water testing program and empower the local community to generate their own water quality information to protect public health.
Because of electrical shortages and interruptions in water treatment, Puerto Rico has seen an uptick in water-borne diseases and infections like Leptospira bacteria found in water contaminated by rat or rodent urine. It took government agencies up to three months after the hurricane hit to restart their water testing programs, compounding the increased health risk, and they are still not back up to capacity.
Even today, there are far too many households, and even entire communities without access to basic necessities such as clean drinking water and electricity.
To meet this critical need, the Surfrider’s Rincón Chapter banded together with the Costa Salud Community Health Center and RBC Maria Relief to get their lab equipment back up and running.
The chapter pulled its first water quality samples at the beach by mid-October, only three weeks after Hurricane Maria hit. They also started testing streams, springs and other community sources of freshwater that were being used as drinking and household water.
Through this work, the chapter has identified a number of sources of water that were not suitable for drinking or bathing, and they have trained others to do the testing themselves.
The chapter has also helped build community awareness of health issues from exposure to polluted water and has helped direct the installation of water filtering systems in areas that do not have secure access to clean potable water during emergencies and power failures.
Over the last decade, the Surfrider Rincón BWTF has built an incredible reputation for providing credible and consistent water quality information. And the chapter’s efforts since Hurricane Maria raises the bar for a small group of volunteers taking charge to protect public health and clean water.
We look forward to keeping you up to date on the great work that Surfrider’s chapter volunteers are doing, day in and day out, in places like Puerto Rico and along all of our coasts.
