Fighting For Sustainable Infrastructure In Puerto Rico

Isla del Encanto, or the Island of Enchantment, is the nickname for the beautiful island of Puerto Rico. Despite being a popular destination for tourists, the full-time residents have expressed frustrations regarding the country's infrastructure. The people of Puerto Rico have been in an ongoing battle, demanding an end to power outages, a halt to the destruction of public spaces, and better government support during natural disasters. As a result, these issues have left many ready to take matters into their own hands. Through community building, Puerto Ricans are on a path to restoring their island so that the land and its people can both flourish.

While technically an archipelago, Puerto Rico is between the Caribbean Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean and was first home to the Taíno people at least one thousand years prior to the arrival of the Spanish. Although the Indigenous population of Puerto Rico is referred to as the Taínos, the original name of the Indigenous group is unknown, as Taíno was the name chosen by the Spanish. However, what is known is that before being called Puerto Rico, the island was named Borikén, and by the time the Spanish arrived, there were anywhere between 20,000-70,000 Taíno people living on the island.

Today, their descendants make up a population of over 3 million people, with most of the residents living on the northern coastal plain. About 60% of the Puerto Rican landscape is covered by mountains, with the remaining landscape touched by a variety of rainforests, deserts, beaches, caves, oceans, and rivers. Amongst the vast beauty of Puerto Rico, its native inhabitants are fighting for a more self-sufficient and sustainable future in the wake of unpredictable power outages, intense hurricanes, and an influx of foreign investors looking to profit from the island's resources.

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Empowering The Community

The people of Puerto Rico fiercely love their land, and with that love comes a dedication to safeguard the island and preserve its natural state. Throughout Puerto Rico, there are several organizations supporting the surrounding communities and ecosystems. The Puerto Rican government and the private companies that control resources like electricity and water have become notorious for their unreliability in times of crisis.

Many factors have contributed to this situation, a lot of which stem from Puerto Rico's history of colonization. Spanish colonialism and the current power dynamic with the United States has created many obstacles in Puerto Rico's infrastructure and ability to sustain itself. As a result, Puerto Ricans have been left to turn to each other to look for alternative solutions. In the face of hardship, the collaboration between residents and organizations has fostered new methods for independence and sustainability in Puerto Rico.

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Regaining Food Sovereignty

At one point in time, Puerto Rico had an extensive agricultural network, with a majority of its inhabitants working on farms. Today, Puerto Rico imports 85% of the food consumed on the island, and it often degrades in quality due to the shipping times to reach Puerto Rico. This outcome stems from colonization, dating back to the 15th century when natives were forced to work for the Spanish colonizers, followed by enslaved Africans who were brought to Puerto Rico. Enslavement and forced labor were done to capitalize on crops like sugarcane.

When the United States took over control of Puerto Rico, they expanded the sugar industry on the archipelago. Doing so dried up acres of marshes to have as much land as possible for sugar cane. Decades later, in the 1940s, Operation Bootstrap took effect in an effort to industrialize Puerto Rico. This pulled Puerto Ricans from working in agriculture to manufacturing jobs instead. This moment led to a large population of farmers leaving the countryside to take on manufacturing jobs in the cities. Little by little, fewer Puerto Ricans were cultivating crops on the island.

In combination with these events, U.S. legislation made importing goods particularly costly for Puerto Rico. Not only did Puerto Ricans rely more on imports, but they also had to pay more for them, too. The Jones Act requires Puerto Rico to only use U.S. ships to import goods. However, U.S. ships are more expensive than ships from other countries. It's also twice as expensive for Puerto Rico to import from the U.S. than it is for the Dominican Republic's U.S. imports. This system for agricultural commodities is a challenge that only escalates after hurricane destruction. The intense storms often wipe out the ability to deliver food to supermarkets and eliminate port access because of damages.

After generations of dependence on imported food, younger Puerto Ricans are deciding to take a different approach to food security by farming on the land themselves. In a short documentary hosted by journalist Bianca Graulau, a new generation of Puerto Ricans are interviewed, where they share their desire for Puerto Rico to return to its agricultural roots.

"If most of our food is being imported, that means most of the people here are eating imported, processed food," shared Tara Rodriguez Besosa, who returned to Puerto Rico after studying architecture in New York. "Food sovereignty is meant for everybody," she reiterated. Besosa now serves as the co-founder and co-director of El Departamento de la Comida. What first began as a system to purchase produce from farms to distribute around the island grew into a kitchen, storefront, and restaurant with local produce. Unfortunately, the restaurant suffered damages after hurricanes Irma and Maria.

In the aftermath, the team prioritized Puerto Rico's food system and relaunched it as a nonprofit collective for food sovereignty. For El Departamento de la Comida, this meant serving as an agency to support food projects that aren't typically available at traditional federal agencies. Among its varying programs, the organization supports local farmers by purchasing surplus crops to distribute, offering farming equipment, and providing special grants for food projects on the island. Uplifting local agricultural businesses in this way gives the sector momentum to continue growing so that one day Puerto Rico will have a stronger, self-sustaining farming industry.

Guaranteeing Water Security With Plenitud PR

Housing and food security aren't the only issues on the organization's radar. Plenitud PR, along with most Puerto Ricans, is aware of the global water crisis and is responding to the dilemma by installing rainwater tanks. The planet is currently experiencing a freshwater shortage as natural sources have dried up or become too polluted to depend on. This reality, combined with natural disasters, can often put Puerto Ricans in an incredibly vulnerable position.

In the wake of Hurricane Irma and María in 2017, the fragility of the infrastructure was exposed after residents went months without basic services. Puerto Ricans had no access to electricity, phones, or even necessities like running water. These kinds of humanitarian crises are why the team at Plenitud PR learned to build independence outside of the existing infrastructure. The installation of rainwater tanks gives another degree of autonomy to vulnerable communities, particularly senior citizens.

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Solar Power To The People

About 30 miles from the Plenitud PR headquarters sits the town of Adjuntas, where on March 18, 2023, residents partook in a community movement called Marcha del Sol. With the march, three organizations kicked off a new independent solar project that will allow businesses to continue operations when the next natural disaster causes power outages. Casa Pueblo, the Honnold Foundation, and the Adjuntas Solar Energy Community Association came together to bring the Adjuntas Pueblo Solar project to the town. In Spanish, the Casa Pueblo website declares, "This citizen mobilization will demand and promote a model of energy self-sufficiency now."

The Adjuntas Pueblo Solar Project connects a small group of businesses within the town, including a pharmacy, a pizzeria, furniture stores, a hardware store, an optician's office, a bakery, and a church. Overall, it will provide 172 kilowatts of solar power and give energy independence to 13 businesses in total. Bringing renewable energy microgrids to Adjuntas that are independent of the island's power grid is expected to reduce energy costs and generate endurance during emergencies.

"We are causing a systemic change in the way energy is generated in the country. It has been a rough road, but one made possible by the strength of community self-management and the solidarity of hundreds of people,” stated the Associate Director of Casa Pueblo, Dr. Arturo Messol Deyá.

The culprit behind so many power outages is the US-Canadian company Luma Energy, Puerto Rico's electrical distributor. Paired with frequent outages are the costly rates that force Puerto Ricans to pay more than double the average price for utilities in the United States. Paying these high rates for a service that is consistently unreliable with very outdated equipment has residents of the island unsurprisingly fed up with Luma's electrical system.