[EDITORIAL] Esencia Responds to the Water Challenge with Solutions

One of the greatest concerns raised about the Esencia project has been its potential impact on the water supply in Cabo Rojo and the Lajas Valley. It is a legitimate concern, particularly at a time when Puerto Rico is facing drought conditions and communities in the southwest continue to suffer the consequences of limited public infrastructure.

That is precisely why Esencia’s response deserves recognition: the project would build and finance its own water system, completely disconnected from the Puerto Rico Aqueduct and Sewer Authority’s public network.

This is not a vague promise. The proposed model includes wells located within the project’s property, a private drinking-water treatment plant, rainwater harvesting, storage infrastructure, tertiary wastewater treatment, and the reuse of treated water for irrigating the golf courses and other green areas.

The information published by BrandStudio⁠, in commercial content presented by Three Rules Capital, estimates a demand of 1.25 million gallons per day of drinking water and another 2.4 million gallons for irrigation. To meet that demand, the project proposes a plant capable of processing 1.5 million gallons of raw water per day, harvesting up to 36 million gallons of rainwater per month, and combining that resource with treated wastewater to generate approximately 2.52 million gallons per day for reuse.

More importantly, the fundamental components of this model are documented in the official environmental compliance resolution issued by the Puerto Rico Permits Management Office⁠. The document establishes that the project will obtain its water from wells and a private treatment plant without relying on the public water system. It will also construct a tertiary treatment facility to reuse approximately 1.3 million gallons of wastewater per day, primarily for irrigation.

This is precisely the kind of response Puerto Rico should demand from major private developments: they should assume the cost of their own infrastructure instead of transferring that burden to the government, taxpayers, or neighboring communities.

If Esencia can operate without connecting to the public water network, it will not directly compete for the system’s already limited capacity. If it can reuse treated wastewater and harvest rainwater, it will reduce the need to consume drinking water for purposes that do not require it. And if all this infrastructure is financed by the developers, Puerto Rico will gain economic activity without imposing another multimillion-dollar obligation on the public treasury.

Water reuse is not an improvised experiment. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency⁠ recognizes that these practices can expand available supplies, strengthen resilience against drought, and reduce pressure on traditional water sources. Esencia is incorporating tools that are already part of modern water planning in other jurisdictions.

Naturally, independence from the public network does not mean freedom from oversight. Well extraction, drinking-water quality, the operation of the tertiary treatment plant, and the cumulative impact on the aquifer must remain subject to permits, periodic measurements, and rigorous supervision. The commitments that have been announced must become enforceable and verifiable obligations throughout every phase of construction and operation.

Supporting the project does not mean giving it a blank check. It means recognizing that its developers have responded with engineering, investment, and concrete changes to one of the community’s principal concerns. The environmental determination itself requires detailed plans, evidence of compliance with standards established by the EPA, the Puerto Rico Department of Health, and the Department of Natural and Environmental Resources, as well as additional studies and monitoring before the corresponding permits can be issued.

The public debate must also evolve when the facts change. It is not reasonable to continue claiming that Esencia will reduce water pressure for existing customers as though the project were still proposing a connection to the public network. If the original proposal generated concerns and the project was modified to address them, that willingness to adapt should be acknowledged.

Puerto Rico needs investment, jobs, and a tourism industry capable of competing internationally. But it also needs a new generation of developments that do not depend on already overburdened public systems. In that regard, Esencia can establish an important precedent: anyone seeking to build on a large scale should also be prepared to provide solutions on a large scale.

NewsPR believes that the proposed water system represents a responsible and positive step for Cabo Rojo. Oversight must continue, but projects should also be evaluated according to what they actually propose—not according to slogans that disregard the changes they have made.

Esencia has presented a concrete solution to the water challenge. The task now is to ensure that it fulfills its commitments and to allow it to demonstrate that economic development and environmental responsibility do not have to be enemies.