Puerto Rico is confronting a convergence of water challenges unlike anywhere else in the United States. Steep terrain, coastal development, and exposure to extreme weather place constant pressure on the island’s water systems. Aging reservoirs, pipelines, and treatment plants leak, fail, and lose water before it ever reaches communities. Water quality concerns persist in many areas, while drought and shifting rainfall patterns strain already limited supplies. Land‑use changes, from urban expansion to deforestation, are degrading watersheds, increasing runoff, and elevating flood risks. Flood damage continues to rise, underscoring the need for stronger preparedness and modernized infrastructure. These pressures are compounded by fragmented governance, where responsibilities are spread across multiple agencies, slowing coordination and response.
Puerto Rico’s vulnerabilities extend beyond water systems alone. The island ranks seventh in the nation for critical infrastructure assets at risk of disruptive flooding by 2100 and flooding is already the most expensive atmospheric hazard in both Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, driving repeated losses across homes, businesses, and public infrastructure.
The economic implications are equally significant. A Joint Economic Committee report notes that the “true cost” of climate impacts in U.S. territories is likely underestimated, as indirect losses disproportionately affect island economies. These pressures are compounded by Puerto Rico’s ongoing recovery from Hurricane Maria, a disaster that caused an estimated $90 billion in damage and exposed how quickly cascading failures in the electrical and water grids can occur.
Against this backdrop, leaders across Puerto Rico’s water community came together with a shared purpose:
to strengthen the partnerships, data networks, and technical capacity needed to confront these challenges head‑on.
That purpose brought more than 130 professionals together on February 20, 2026, at the Interamerican University of Puerto Rico’s Metro Campus for the first‑ever Caribbean Water Resources Summit, hosted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Caribbean District and the USACE Silver Jackets Program. The summit convened scientists, agency heads, federal partners, nonprofit leaders, and academics for a full day of focused collaboration.
Setting the Tone for Collaboration
Caribbean District Commander Col. Charles Decker opened the summit by acknowledging the breadth of expertise in the room and the shared responsibility it represents. “Every voice in this room is essential to Puerto Rico’s water future,” he said.
As one of the opening guest speakers, meteorologist Ada Monzón reinforced that framing in her talk,
Water Challenges in Puerto Rico. Monzón approached the topic through the lenses of public policy, data, and education, drawing on Puerto Rico’s Climate Change Mitigation, Adaptation, and Resilience Plan, particularly its water‑focused courses of action.
She also highlighted the importance of the proposed Mesonet – a dense grid of weather stations designed to give Puerto Rico high‑resolution data on rainfall, storms, and changing climate conditions. Monzón emphasized that the summit represented exactly the kind of cross‑sector collaboration Puerto Rico needs, bringing together state and federal agencies, researchers, and organizations “who work every day for a more resilient Puerto Rico.”
Decker underscored the urgency of the moment. Puerto Rico, he noted, is facing water‑quality threats tied to outdated systems, drought conditions that deplete supplies faster than they can be replenished, and land‑use changes that accelerate runoff and erode watersheds. He emphasized that these challenges don’t respect agency boundaries… and solutions can’t either.
He also highlighted that the newly established USACE Caribbean District was created to bring Federal engineering capacity closer to the communities it serves and to strengthen coordination across agencies.
“Today is about coordination, collaboration, and building networks,” he said. “Together we can be more effective than any one of our entities can be on our own.”
Local and Federal Leaders in Conversation
The morning’s first panel brought together leaders from Puerto Rico’s Department of Natural and Environmental Resources (DNER), Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA), and the Puerto Rico Planning Board. Their joint panel discussion highlighted how water intersects with energy reliability, land‑use decisions, environmental protection, and emergency management, reinforcing the need for integrated planning across sectors.
A second panel convened federal partners from USACE, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), National Marines Fisheries Service (NMFS), and the National Weather Service (NWS). Their dialogue focused on shared data, regulatory alignment, and coordinated emergency response. The agencies emphasized that addressing aging infrastructure, water‑quality concerns, drought, and rising flood impacts requires coordinated action and shared information. The message was consistent across agencies: collaboration is not optional; it is foundational.
Shifting Towards Innovation and Technical Insight
In the afternoon, the summit turned toward science and technology. Dr. Walter Silva Araya of the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez opened the session with an overview of current modeling and technical efforts shaping water management across the Caribbean.
A showcase of advanced modeling tools followed, including:
- The CROWN Model, presented by ERDC, offering next‑generation operational water modeling for Puerto Rico, integrating rainfall, runoff, river flow, and coastal dynamics into a single decision‑support system (learn more about ERDC’s modeling research at the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center).
- A San Juan Bay Estuary case study from the University of Georgia, demonstrating how local knowledge can strengthen flood‑mitigation strategies.
- A community flood early‑warning decision‑support platform, presented by George Mason University, highlighting tools that empower communities to anticipate and respond to flood risks.
Flash talks from CARICOOS, NOAA, USGS, and Interamerican University rounded out the technical sessions, illustrating the depth of ongoing research and the importance of shared data across institutions.
A UNIFIED water future
Throughout the day, Decker returned to the USACE’s “Build Infrastructure and not Paperwork” initiative, an effort to streamline project delivery by reducing bureaucracy and sharpening focus on core missions such as navigation, flood‑risk management, ecosystem restoration, and dam safety. But he emphasized that the initiative also carries a deeper purpose: strengthening partnerships.
“The implied task is about the USACE being a better partner and a connector across the water‑management landscape,” he said. “We want to share our technical resources, our data, and our expertise while identifying opportunities to act as a unified team.”
Fernando Pabón of the Puerto Rico Science, Technology and Research Trust echoed that sentiment, emphasizing the Trust’s commitment to supporting science‑driven, collaborative solutions.
The summit closed with a sense of momentum and a shared understanding that Puerto Rico’s water challenges – aging infrastructure, water‑quality threats, drought, watershed degradation, rising flood impacts, and complex governance – cannot be solved in isolation. According to Decker, addressing them requires coordination, shared data, and a unified commitment to modernizing systems and protecting communities.
“Through the partnerships strengthened during the summit, Puerto Rico is better positioned to take on these challenges together and build a stronger, safer water future,” he said.
About the Silver Jackets:
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’
Silver Jackets Program is a national initiative designed to bring agencies together to reduce flood risk and strengthen community resilience. Rather than working in isolation, Silver Jackets teams unite federal, state, territorial, and local partners to share data, align priorities, and develop coordinated strategies before, during, and after disasters.
In Puerto Rico, the Silver Jackets Program plays a central role in connecting agencies across the island’s complex water‑management landscape. The Silver Jackets support efforts ranging from flood‑risk reduction and watershed planning to emergency preparedness and community outreach. By fostering collaboration across disciplines such as engineering, emergency management, environmental protection, planning, and public policy, the Silver Jackets help ensure that decisions are informed by shared information and grounded in the needs of local communities.