Vieques Puerto Rico, an island of approximately 9,000 people and darling of HGTV and multiple house hunting shows, has two personalities. One is the sun drenched, beach laden, vacation haven for continental Americans. The other, the one we don’t see, is an island where 46% of the population lives below the poverty line and the annual household income is less than $15,000.[1] Most of the island’s water supply is piped in from Puerto Rico or tapped from the shrinking groundwater supply and with minimal local agriculture, almost all food is shipped in. As a result, Vieques is extremely vulnerable to climate change and extreme weather events and was devastated by Maria which left the island with no water for 7 months.
On the main island of Puerto Rico (the Mainland), PRASA is the primary water provider. However, almost 300 small, poor and rural communities remain unserved by PRASA and must provide their own safe drinking water. To help these communities thrive, the Organizacian Sistemas Acueductos Non-PRASA (OSAN) was formed as a small water system association (501(c)3) designed to support non-PRASA communities. At the same time, in order to obtain FEMA funding following Maria, non-PRASA systems were required to become 501(c)3s. An organization was brought in to speed their applications through the IRS, but in the process, the systems were never trained on what was expected of them as a 501(c)3 (a huge gap in training which may be echoed in other climate devastated communities across the US). As a result, many of these systems are now in danger of losing their nonprofit status.
During the week of October 17, 2021 EFCWest, in partnership with Syracuse University (SU), traveled to both islands to meet with rural communities, public officials, multiple NGOs, University of Puerto Rico, Sea Grant Puerto Rico, NOAA, USDA and EPA to better identify vulnerabilities and adaptation measures within the context of the larger social and economic inequities of poverty and racism. The trip was designed to help EFCWest and SU identify training and technical assistance opportunities for Vieques and mainland Puerto Rico Resiliency throughout 2022.
Outcomes: Vieques has two major climate vulnerabilities: 1) access to safe drinking water (up to 10% of the island has no running water) and 2) food sustainability, because virtually everything comes from the Mainland. In response, this project will work with local NGOs, communities and public officials to help catalyze their capacities to grow their budgets and be more effective advocates for a sustainable and sovereign Vieques. EFCWest will also work with the island to help them identify adaptation strategies around water catchment opportunities, community gardens and larger scale agriculture. Adaptation measures will not be limited to technological fixes, and will be closely tied to community resilience, however that is defined by the people.
On the Mainland, OSAN has asked EFCWest to help them develop best practices around board development, nonprofit operations and strategic planning. EFCWest will provide a series of workshops to strengthen the organization, and has committed to helping them prepare two grant proposals by October 2022. At the same time, EFCWest will also train the non-PRASA communities in nonprofit management so they can sustain their systems.
[1] https://censusreporter.org/profiles/05000US72147-vieques-municipio-pr/
