Volunteers Work To Get Clean Water In Rural Puerto Rican Towns

A month after Hurricane Maria hit, a million people in Puerto Rico still lack clean water. A group of volunteers is bringing their own water purification to remote towns.

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It's been more than a month since Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico. And clean water continues to be hard to come by for many residents. Broken bridges and blocked roads made it tough to move supplies. Jeff Cohen of member station WNPR spent a day with a team of veterans and volunteers in Puerto Rico trying to help.

JEFF COHEN, BYLINE: Police escorted a convoy from San Juan south past fallen homes and torn up trees. As the team drove along, they stayed in touch with two-way radios.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: OK, we got horses on the left in the middle of the road.

COHEN: The convoy eventually stopped at a patch of mud next to a river in Salinas. And in an instant, two men were ankle-deep in the water, setting a blue hose while others ran it to a 250-gallon portable tank sitting on the riverbank.

RAY GUASP: Let's put a longer hose. Let's take that bladder system and push it back a little bit further, please.

COHEN: Then Ray Guasp started pumping back and forth, bringing the river water up. Once there, it got treated with chlorine, tested and finally pumped through a manual filter. The product is made by Utah-based company named Aquamira, and the whole process takes about an hour. As he pumps, Guasp says he doesn't like to watch people do things. He likes to do them.

GUASP: We've been sitting on a couch on the sidelines waiting for things to get better. Needle really hasn't moved that much. We thought we could maybe do some help and do some good and help support what the efforts are.

COHEN: Guasp served in the Marines. But this week, he and his volunteer team aren't on orders. They say they're self-deployed Connecticut residents working with local emergency officials to target areas that need it most. They've raised money for equipment, paid their own way and packed their own food. Some are veterans. Some aren't. But all wanted to help. Guasp says he got his dad off the island five days after Hurricane Maria passed, but he has other family all over.

GUASP: I have Dorado. I have Salinas, this town here, my aunt lives in. I have Guayanilla, which is one of...

COHEN: Angel Fernandez helped coordinate the trip. He's retired Navy and considers Puerto Rico home.

ANGEL FERNANDEZ: I wasn't born and raised here, but I live part of the time. I come four times a year or with my family. And they know I love the island. That's where my roots came from. And you know, when you're overseas doing your mission, you don't have no personal ties at all.

COHEN: But this mission is clearly personal. With the river raging and the rain falling, the obvious problem isn't water but clean water. And this team stands by its product. Before they give it out, they drink it.

GUASP: So they know that they can trust us to provide them with the clean water they need.

FERNANDEZ: It's all about trust.

COHEN: As they worked, people slowly came down in the rain to the river valley with empty containers, water jugs, bleach and detergent bottles, some five-gallon buckets.

JOEY DIAZ: I'm looking for water to cook, to drink. We don't have nothing on here now.

COHEN: That's Joey Diaz who came here with his wife and two kids. He was born in Puerto Rico and lived in Connecticut. He says they've gotten some bottled water delivered from the government. And they've got what they need to drink. But if they want to bathe or clean, they have to go to the river.

DIAZ: It's hard. It's hard, very hard.

COHEN: So when you see these people, how does that make you feel?

DIAZ: Yeah. Yeah. I feel happy, man. That help a lot.

COHEN: As the first 250 gallons ran out, the team started pumping again. As it did, still more residents came to fill up their bottles. And even though 250 gallons at a time won't solve an island's water problems, it's a lifeline for those who now have more to drink. For NPR News, I'm Jeff Cohen in San Juan.

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