Vulnerability assessment of small community water systems in Puerto Rico

Abstract

In Puerto Rico, about 3% of the population gets its drinking water from 250 small community water systems. The simplicity of design, remote location and the threat of natural disasters requires a vulnerability assessment to minimise damage in the eventuality of these and terrorism acts. The objective of this study was to assess the vulnerability of 40 community water systems using a methodology developed for these aqueducts. The purpose was to determine the degree of vulnerability and the steps to minimise it in the event of natural or manmade disasters. An emergency response plan was developed for each system. The results showed that the majority of the systems had a high risk level value. An analysis of the results showed that the methodology failed to take into account factors such as requirement vs. necessity, which may have flawed the absolute value of the criticality and vulnerability of each system.