Work gloves rest on a potable-water tanker at a Puerto Rico Army National Guard water purification site in Canóvanas, Puerto Rico, Aug. 20, 2026. Soldiers assigned to the site worked extended shifts operating and maintaining equipment used to produce potable water during the drought response. (U.S. Army National Guard photo by Staff Sgt. Agustín Montañez)
Listening for water amid Puerto Rico’s drought
While Spc. Jesús Ramos helps turn the Río Grande de Loíza into drinking water for drought-stricken communities, his wife and daughters listen for the tap to come back to life.
Story by Staff Sgt. Agustín Montañez, Puerto Rico Army National Guard
CANÓVANAS, Puerto Rico — At Spc. Jesús D. Ramos Jiménez's house in Barrio Carraízo, in the hills of Trujillo Alto, the family leaves one faucet slightly open.
No schedule reliably tells them when water service will return, Ramos said. Sometimes a neighbor calls out that the water is back. Sometimes they hear the faucet sputter to life. Then his wife and two daughters fill buckets and other storage containers, because no one knows how...
