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Senate to Discuss Policy Changes in Water Conservation

By on March 17, 2016

SAN JUAN—Popular Democratic Party Sen. Cirilo Tirado Rivera, who chairs the Senate’s Natural and Environmental Resources Committee, announced the upper chamber would consider Senate Bill 1506, which seeks to establish a new public policy on the use and conservation of water in Puerto Rico, on Thursday.

FLINT, MI - JANUARY 21: Mary Stewart pours bottled water to make coffee in her apartment on the north side on January 21, 2016 in Flint, Michigan. She said that when the problems with the lead started in 2014 they were told to just boil their water, and continued using the contaminated water. (Photo by Sarah Rice/Getty Images)

(Photo by Sarah Rice/Getty Images)

The bill seeks to amend the Puerto Rico Water Resource Conservation, Development and Use Act. “More than 38 years have passed since this law was signed, and we now have new and extensive scientific research at the national and international level about this valuable resource,” Tirado said. “The experience that stems from best practices regarding water management has generated a heap of information, and it is up to this Legislative Assembly to adopt a vision that brings our water management policies in tune to current times.”

The new senator added that various countries in Europe, mostly Spain, and Latin America have adopted a new approach to water management, conceptually known as New Water Culture, that focuses mainly on a more rational, integrated way of resource managing.

With this approach in mind, the bill would specifically allow the commonwealth government’s Department of Natural and Environmental Resources to establish the cost of permits and concessions for the use of water-based resources, and impose administrative sanctions for the misuse of said permits or concessions.

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