We recently returned from three weeks on the island, all of which time we were residing on the French side, at Orient to be exact. We experienced a number of evenings and some daytime hours without running water. There were two reasons. First, there was water line construction work underway from about the Hope Estate area south to about where the Price Leader store is located. They were actively working there most nights and traffic had been diverted to a poorly marked "deviation." If that weren't frustrating enough, during that time one of the three pumps at the French desalination plant broke down and that disrupted the water supply for over a day or so until repairs were made.

It should be noted that back here in the States, there are many communities that have or are experiencing the exact same problems, stemming from a lack of sufficient investment in the infrastructure. Just think of all the water going to waste in California now due to inadequate retention and storage facilities. I have no idea how many privately-owned cisterns there are on the island, but for sure they contribute little to the overall supply of potable water. Meanwhile, drought or no drought, there is no significant effort at all on either side of the island to collect and store storm water as a reserve or to supplement sweetened seawater. Neither side has enough extra capacity to help the other much during times when service is under stress.