The water supply crisis in the city of Santiago de Cuba is forcing people to resort to extreme measures, such as collecting the precious liquid directly from a street leak, which compromises its quality and safety, putting lives at risk.
Residents of the Los Pinos neighborhood, who have been without service for over two weeks due to issues with the pipe network, are filling buckets and tanks directly from a large leak in the street, reported communicator Yosmany Mayeta on Facebook this Wednesday.
According to the activist, the large hole in the street is the result of a repair for a break that began some time ago but has yet to be completed, leaving people without this vital service for at least two weeks.
The hole is located at the corner of Mariana Grajales and Los Pinos, in the city of Santiago de Cuba, very close to a garbage dump as can be seen in the video.
In the photos shared by Mayeta, it can be seen how children and the elderly are carrying the vital liquid in any container they can use for that purpose.
"Up to that point, people arrive with carts, tanks, and whatever containers they have in their homes," the communicator pointed out, also denouncing that they have turned the makeshift pool into a recreational area.
At the same time, in the same spot where children bathe and people fetch water for their homes, "the carriage drivers passing through this street let their animals drink there," highlighting the extent of the problem that could lead to contamination and gastrointestinal illnesses.
Mayeta explained that the neighbors, tired and frustrated by seeing how the water they so desperately need in their homes is wasted due to the negligence of the regime, asked her to make the government's poor handling of this issue public.
CiberCuba contacted several residents of the area who stated that they have been without potable water service for nearly 20 days.
A person from the Jiménez department, very close to the break, reported that they have gone 19 days without receiving the precious liquid.
A mother from the José Martí urban center reported that for over two weeks, she hasn’t seen water flowing through the pipes.
However, despite the unfavorable situation that the people of Santiago are experiencing with power outages and the precarious potable water supply system, in March, the first secretary of the Party in Santiago de Cuba, Beatriz Johnson Urrutia, urged residents not to lose hope.
The leader was caught in a work meeting when she was asking to inform people that within a week everyone would have "their little bit of water."
However, people who receive water through the pipes also report the poor quality of the water, which can barely be used for household tasks.
A Cuban resident of Santiago de Cuba reported the poor quality of the water coming to homes in her area.
"Look at the water that's coming into the district," Keisa Calderín reported in a Facebook group, needing only two photos to demonstrate the seriousness of the situation.
However, the issues related to water supply are not limited to Santiago de Cuba. Recently, the increase in cases of hepatitis A in the Reina neighborhood of Cienfuegos raised alarms and compelled authorities to implement epidemiological surveillance measures in response to the health alert.
Dr. Liván Rojas Lantigua, the director of health management for the General Directorate of Health in Cienfuegos, announced at a press conference that “the majority of cases are concentrated in four blocks of that neighborhood, where they are implementing a focused control of the disease, which has an incubation period ranging from 15 to 50 days,” according to a note on the website of the local channel Perlavisión.
Filed under: