SALINAS, Puerto Rico It was a late August afternoon when the rain finally came, first as a drizzle that beaded on the plazas magnolia trees, then a downpour, darkening the dusty bricks and forming murky rivulets along the curbside.

Manases Vega was relieved by the prospect of daily showers and the ability to flush his toilet again.

This municipality of roughly 31,000 had been water rationing since June. Again. The first time came in 2015, following a prolonged drought. This summer, another parching dry spell drained the aquifer beneath this seaside enclave on Puerto Ricos southeast coast to dangerously low levels.

Yet the industries whose pollution Vega, 65, blames for triggering the mysterious respiratory illness that causes him to visit the emergency room to have his chest drained three days a week, kept sucking up water with an unquenchable thirst. Vega, meanwhile, lost water access every Tuesday and Thursday.

They give the water to those big companies and we have no water, Vega said, wheezing slightly. It makes you very angry.