San Juan says it has not been reimbursed for water shortages

San Juan Mayor Miguel Romero Lugo

By THE STAR STAFF

San Juan Mayor Miguel Romero Lugo said Thursday that the Puerto Rico Aqueduct and Sewer Authority (PRASA) has not yet reimbursed him for expenses incurred as a result of the drinking water crisis affecting the capital city. 

Meanwhile, PRASA reached an agreement with the Municipality of Bayamón to reimburse $499,636 for the delivery of drinking water to communities affected by the service outage. However, that figure contrasts sharply with the nearly $1 million that Mayor Ramón Luis Rivera Cruz said the municipality has spent to address the emergency.

The Villa Verde, San Agustín and Villas de San Agustín neighborhoods of Bayamón are among those most impacted by the water service interruption.

In a press release, PRASA reported that the two parties have established a working mechanism between their finance departments to collect, evaluate and validate the documentation required to process payments.

“Both teams are meeting to review the documents, and if everything is ready and in order, the payment will be processed,” PRASA spokesperson Michelle Cobb said. “We can’t specify when the payment will be made.”

Rivera Cruz stated that the municipality has already invested $1 million in supplying water to affected families and has requested reimbursement. He added that if the payment is not made, he does not rule out taking legal action.

“What we are charging is reasonable … what it has cost us to set up this entire system to solve all these problems, because the Authority doesn’t have the capacity to do the same in every town where there are issues,” the mayor said.

Romero Lugo has sued PRASA to secure water for San Juan. The case is pending in the courts.