Ocean Park residents mark “a year without water” as crisis threatens local businesses

By THE STAR STAFF

Residents of Ocean Park in San Juan warned on Monday that the community has effectively reached “a year without water,” a prolonged service interruption they say is now forcing some merchants to consider shutting down.

“We can celebrate the birthday of a year without water,” resident Alfredo Cuyar said during an interview on Radio Isla. He noted that, based on residents’ own tracking, Ocean Park has been without potable water 58 percent of the past year. In higher‑elevation sectors of San Juan, he added, the situation is even more severe, with some communities spending up to 98 percent of the year without service.

The chronic outages have begun to take a toll on small businesses that lack cisterns or the financial capacity to install them.

“Many businesses do not have cisterns because they cannot afford them, and they are about to close and they are suffering,” Cuyar said. He emphasized that the crisis has also damaged Puerto Rico’s image among visitors, particularly in areas that rely heavily on tourism.

Merchants in the district have reportedly started evaluating whether they can continue operating under the current conditions, as water interruptions persist despite repeated complaints from residents.