It’s true that federal or statewide funding can have a big effect on an area’s ability to recover from a disaster, but challenges in flowing that funding down to local areas or even individuals can result in significant delays or misallocations, as groups distant from those to need assistance argue as to what should be done first. For Puerto Rico, which has struggled to recover from being hit by three major hurricanes between 2017 and 2022, these kinds of discussions have often left locals to build their own networks to help restore key services, turning to community strategies to rebuild things like a safe and stable supply of drinking water.
Writing for Zocalo, Omar Perez Figueroa, an interdisciplinary researcher who supports communities facing environmental inequalities, offers some details and insights into what lessons can be learned from Puerto Rico’s local actions around rebuilding a safe water supply, both with respect to the repair and maintenance of these aqueducts, and how these rebuilt aqueducts have acted as a foundation for collecting and distributing other essential goods to those in need, through establishing resource sharing networks, by connecting those with differing needs.
It should be noted too that these networks cannot fully displace governmental funding, but rather act as a supplement to it, allowing for more local action in the building of robustness, and encouraging local engagement. With significant weather events expected to be more common in coming years, the actions of these locals can offer a template for how individuals can help build disaster preparedness into their communities.
Source:
https://www.zocalopublicsquare.org/2023/05/08/hurricane-puerto-rico-disaster-recovery/ideas/essay/
