Trump administration says grant is supposed to assist rebuild infrastructure on US territory onerous hit by pure disasters.
The Trump administration introduced Tuesday that it’ll award a $3.7bn grant to assist Puerto Rico rebuild water and wastewater remedy crops, pumping stations and reservoirs broken by Hurricane Maria greater than three years in the past.
The funds will probably be awarded by the Federal Emergency Administration Administration to assist rebuild Puerto Rico’s water and wastewater remedy crops, pumping stations, dams and reservoirs, the White Home mentioned on Tuesday.
The bankrupt US territory, a Caribbean island of three.2 million folks, was hit by extreme earthquakes a yr in the past whereas struggling to recuperate from devastating 2017 hurricanes.
The administration has been sluggish to launch $44bn in cash that was permitted for Puerto Rico following the devastating hurricane.
However the White Home mentioned that after the water funding is allotted, the Trump administration may have obligated greater than $40bn to the island’s restoration.
Trump has spent a lot of his administration blasting Puerto Rican officers as corrupt and inept, and he had opposed spending federal {dollars} to rebuild an influence grid and different infrastructure that was worn out by Maria in September 2017.
However in September, he put aside his previous bitter remedy of the island and its leaders, together with his administration approving a $13bn infusion that principally went to rebuild {an electrical} grid that was worn out by the storm and resulted within the longest blackout in US historical past.
That announcement got here as Trump courted voters from Puerto Rico, most notably within the swing state of Florida.
The grant introduced Tuesday covers 90 p.c of the estimated prices of the water and wastewater enchancment tasks.
Even now, three years after the storm, hundreds of houses are nonetheless broken in Puerto Rico. The island has additionally been hit by a collection of damaging earthquakes and stays mired in a deep financial disaster, made worse by the coronavirus pandemic.