Representative José "Cheíto" Hernández Concepción has filed House Bill 1334 in Puerto Rico’s House of Representatives, proposing an automatic credit on the monthly base charge for AAA (Puerto Rico Aqueduct and Sewer Authority) water bills. The credit would apply to customers who go without water service for more than 24 hours, starting at a 20% discount and potentially reaching a 100% credit.
If approved, the measure would require AAA to adopt a real-time public information system notifying customers of service interruptions, detailing which customers are affected, the location of the outage, and its cause. AAA would also have to publish monthly data on average repair times, inventories of open and closed outages, water loss metrics, infrastructure project progress, use of federal funds, and overall compliance with operational metrics.
The bill further proposes that AAA inspect any reported outage within 24 hours and begin repairs within 48 hours after that, except in cases of force majeure, officially declared emergencies, or extraordinary weather events. Hernández said the goal is transparency so residents aren’t charged for service they don’t receive, adding the proposal will now be discussed in public hearings. The bill has not yet been approved.