Isn’t Puerto Rico Getting Better? By Amanda Bloom
ISN’T PUERTO RICO GETTING BETTER?
“Isn’t it getting better?” people ask on my return from a second trip to Puerto Rico since Hurricane Maria. Well, yes I guess in some ways.
Does getting better mean that almost everyone on the island now knows the only safe drinking water is bottled, treated, or filtered despite no government information campaign? For the island, that’s a minimum of 3.5 million gallons of water a day. And that doesn’t include water for hand washing, dishwashing, cleaning food. FEMA and the military were worried that they shouldn’t distribute too much potable water as people will become DEPENDENT. Dependent on having clean drinking water? Also, they argue, it would destroy the local economy since it could interfere with businesses that sell water…often for extremely inflated prices. Remember, we are talking about an island where more than half the residents are below the official poverty line, jobs have disappeared, and everyone has lost something since Maria: family members, homes, all of the possessions inside their homes, cars, damaged windows, roofs, and appliances. I spoke with a local doctor from a mountain clinic who is a public health specialist. I asked her how long it would take for safe water to return to PR. “About a year”, she replied. “First you need to have reliable electricity so that the pumping stations and filtration systems can work.” The reservoirs in Comerio are filled with dead animals. Near Caguas, raw sewage backed up into the water supply for San Juan. We see waterborne diseases constantly in the clinics.
And what about the mountains of plastic water bottles? Not to mention the 100,000s of tons of trash including furniture, appliances, electronics, trees piled up along the roads providing homes for rats and other vermin. In the wealthier urban areas, garbage has been hauled away, but to where? Will there be more toxins leaching into the water and soil in the future? Getting better, the official line has changed to stop the water from a toxic Superfund site in Dorado being sold as safe to drink as it was officially sanctioned in the first weeks after Maria.
Does getting better mean that most people on the island have figured out how to survive without having electricity? And those with electricity still have frequent blackouts including at the international airport. There were 60,000 electrical workers in Florida after Irma, working around the clock to restore electrical services in a week. In PR, there are a few thousand workers and electrical restoration may take until May, 8 months after Maria, or longer. Estimates of how many people have electricity are all over the place. Now there are only estimates of what percentage of power is being generated (maybe about 50%) but no one pretends anymore how that translates to households with electricity. No electricity means washing all your clothes, towels, bedding by hand. It means no fresh foods unless you live in an urban center close to a well-stocked market with refrigeration and can afford fruits and vegetables. The temperature is still unseasonably warm, in the upper 80’s with lots of humidity. It means a short shelf life for insulin, no means of cooling people down. Remember the nursing home in Florida where many elders died without air conditioning?
Yes, everyone who gets electricity back up is happy, even though it goes off a lot. And many find their appliances no longer are working. Still, it’s better than Haiti where years after the earthquake nearly 70% of homes have no electricity. Not really a fair comparison, although close by since it is not an official US colony. More comparable is the Navajo nation where over 30% of homes have no electricity and about 40% have no running water; the same reservation has enough polluting fossil fuels extracted to power Las Vegas and beyond.
Does getting better mean that a clear majority of the island’s population live in poverty, up from slightly less than half before Maria. In Mississippi, over 20% of people live in poverty. On the Navajo nation, the number is over 40%.
Hey, but at least there aren’t bombs falling like in Palestine, Syria, and Yemen. Saharan Africa has 70% of households without electricity. And in many countries around the world, people don’t have access to clean water. “45” and the ruling elite is making the US and its colonies into true world citizens.
Let me end in praise of the spirit and resilience of the Puerto Rican people in the face of the island-wide destruction of Maria. The first days after Maria had every able-bodied person working nonstop with a machete, chainsaw, or whatever means available to clear a path of debris to get out their door, connect with neighbors, clear the roads. Many people were rescued from extreme flooding by their neighbors with boats, rafts, anything that would float. That continues to this day with most of the rescue, relief, distribution of food, water, and medicines as well as reconstruction of homes done by the grassroots. No one I talked to had gotten economic help from FEMA to rebuild or repair their home.
Also, there is the resilience of the land itself. A fabulous change is the trees are coming back. The beauty of the tropical vegetation is being reborn. The mudslides are being covered with greenery.
I worked at Clinica Bantiox, an amazing free clinic and emergency room in Toa Baja which took care of everyone who walked in the door. Young Puerto Rican health professionals and students run the clinic with occasional help from visitors. I had lunch with several nursing students who were running down the colony status of Puerto Rico, their inability to vote in US elections, and their second-class status to a Mexican classmate who asked: “but can’t you immigrate and have voting rights if you go to the US?.” Yes, they responded, but this is our home…not the US mainland.” However, they continued. it was almost impossible to afford to stay on the island now. One student was planning to move to the US, at least for a while, after graduation as she would be unable to support her family on a nursing salary in PR. Maria has torn aside the facade; many people are vocal about PR being a colony. One friend said “It is not enough to be diligent, it is not enough to make your regular practices more flexible and adapt to the humanitarian crisis in which we live. The message is that the lives of Puerto Ricans are not equal to other lives.”
Before Maria, there were massive protests against the Junta, privatization, and conditions on the island. Now just the act of staying and surviving is an act of protest. We must support Boricua on the island to survive, rebuild, and thrive. There are millions of people who want to stay on their Isla although there will be many forces seeking to use Maria as a means to seize land, lower the already abysmal salaries and standards of living. Schools, hospitals, clinics, the university are targets…privatize it all.
Please support the grassroots folks on the ground. Keep Puerto Rico in the news. Demand US aid for Puerto Rico and an end to the Jones Act which makes everything more expensive in PR. Demand an end to the “PROMESA” law which created the Junta; cancel the debt. No more colonies.
See Defend Puerto Rico, for more info and to make donations.
Amanda Bloom, is a physician assistant who recently returned from her second trip to Puerto Rico to bring donations and help with medical assistance. Amanda is a long time Bay Area activist and an organizer with Idle No More SF Bay and QUIT (Queers Undermining Israeli Terrorism) along with other political activism.
