The Puerto Rico Aqueducts and Sewers Authority (PRASA;
Spanish: ''Autoridad de Acueductos y Alcantarillados de Puerto Rico'') is a
water company
The water industry provides drinking water and wastewater services (including sewage treatment) to residential, commercial, and industrial sectors of the economy. Typically public utilities operate water supply networks. The water industry doe ...
and the
government-owned corporation
A state-owned enterprise (SOE) is a government entity which is established or nationalised by the ''national government'' or ''provincial government'' by an executive order or an act of legislation in order to earn profit for the governmen ...
responsible for
water quality
Water quality refers to the chemical, physical, and biological characteristics of water based on the standards of its usage. It is most frequently used by reference to a set of standards against which compliance, generally achieved through tr ...
,
management
Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business.
Management includes the activitie ...
, and
supply
Supply may refer to:
*The amount of a resource that is available
**Supply (economics), the amount of a product which is available to customers
**Materiel, the goods and equipment for a military unit to fulfill its mission
*Supply, as in confidenc ...
in
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and unincorporated ...
, a US
insular area
In the law of the United States, an insular area is a U.S.-associated jurisdiction that is not part of the 50 states or the District of Columbia. This includes fourteen U.S. territories administered under U.S. sovereignty, as well as three so ...
. PRASA is the only entity authorized to conduct such business in Puerto Rico, effectively making it a
government monopoly
In economics, a government monopoly or public monopoly is a form of coercive monopoly in which a government agency or government corporation is the sole provider of a particular good or service and competition is prohibited by law. It is a monopo ...
.
History
The Puerto Rico Aqueducts and Sewers Authority was established by Law 40 of May 1, 1945.
In 1995 the agency was privatized under the administration of governor
Pedro Rosselló
Pedro Juan Rosselló González, (; born April 5, 1944) is a Puerto Rican physician and politician who served as the governor of Puerto Rico from 1993 to 2001. He was President of the New Progressive Party from 1991 to 1999 and 2003 to 2008, a ...
until 2002 under governor
Sila María Calderón
Sila María Calderón Serra (born September 23, 1942) is a Puerto Rican politician, businesswoman, and philanthropist who was the governor of Puerto Rico from 2001 to 2005. She is the first woman elected to that office. Prior to her term as gove ...
when the contract ended.
The aftermath of
Hurricane Maria
Hurricane Maria was a deadly Category 5 hurricane that devastated the northeastern Caribbean in September 2017, particularly Dominica, Saint Croix, and Puerto Rico. It is regarded as the worst natural disaster in recorded history to affect ...
left most of the island without water service for weeks. The agency announced in December, three months after the storm had passed, that the water service was restored to 90% of its clients. The authority was ordered by then governor
Ricardo Rosselló
Ricardo Antonio Rosselló Nevares (; born March 7, 1979) is a Puerto Rican politician who served as the governor of Puerto Rico from 2017 to 2019. He resigned on August 2, 2019, after protests related to the Telegramgate scandal. He is the s ...
to not charge for the service it was unable to provide during this period.
Gallery
Puerto Rico Aqueducts and Sewers Authority station in Jayuya, Puerto Rico.jpg, Critical infrastructure located in the mountains of Jayuya
Unibón (6).jpg, Puerto Rico Aqueducts and Sewers Authority in Unibón, Morovis
See also
*
2015 Puerto Rican drought
The 2015 Caribbean drought is an ongoing drought affecting the Caribbean islands, from Cuba to Trinidad and Tobago. The situation is further aggravated by the presence of an abnormal amount of dust and dry air over the southern Atlantic. Besi ...
References
External links
www.acueductospr.com - official site
{{authority control
Government-owned corporations of Puerto Rico
Water companies of the United States