Water supply crisis: Cuban regime proposes to "work with a culture of details"

While hundreds of thousands of Cubans face prolonged water supply cuts, the Deputy Prime Minister Inés María Chapman Waugh appealed this Friday to the worn-out official slogan of “working with a culture of detail,” an empty phrase that the regime has repeated for over a decade as a substitute for concrete policies to resolve the country's structural problems.

“After assessing the area, actions are implemented to improve the water supply to Havana del Este. The National Institute of Hydraulic Resources forms a working group to recover pumping equipment, valves, and address leaks and discharges. Work with a culture of attention to detail,” wrote Chapman on his X account (formerly Twitter).

The message comes amid one of the worst water crises that Cuba has faced in recent years. According to official figures, over 230,000 people in Havana are experiencing total or partial disruptions in service, while provinces such as Santiago de Cuba, Holguín, Ciego de Ávila, and Sancti Spíritus report distribution cycles that can exceed 30 days without running water.

In several communities, residents survive thanks to irregular state tankers or by paying private trucks at exorbitant prices.

The reference to the "culture of detail" — a slogan used by the Cuban government since General Raúl Castro came to power — has been reiterated by Miguel Díaz-Canel and other leaders to call for "efficiency," "good taste," or "order" in state work.

However, the concept has turned into a propagandistic cliché devoid of real substance, which has never translated into effective public policies or sustainable solutions to the issues affecting the population.

In recent months, CiberCuba has documented the growing scarcity of potable water and the citizens' frustration with institutional neglect.

In neighborhoods of Old Havana, Diez de Octubre, and Guanabacoa, residents report that they have gone over a month without receiving a drop of water, while power outages disrupt the operation of the pumps and leaks remain unrepaired.

Chapman's call to "work with a culture of detail" contrasts sharply with the reality of a collapsed hydraulic system, lacking maintenance resources, with aging infrastructure, and insufficient energy to sustain pumping.

In the streets, where water does not reach, many Cubans interpret that phrase as a reminder of the complete disconnection between official discourse and everyday life.

The occurrences of Chapman Waugh

This is not the first time that Inés María Chapman has made statements that highlight the regime's disconnect from daily reality.

Recently, he proposed to “” so that neighbors could watch the government's directives during power outages, an idea that sparked widespread ridicule on social media.

Months earlier, in June 2024, Chapman was filmed next to a well in Santa Isabel de las Lajas, explaining —with a Ciego Montero water bottle in hand— how to apply "science and innovation" so that locals could access water using a “hand pump, nice, painted green.” The scene went viral as a symbol of official insensitivity to the precarious situation.

In 2024, the Vice Prime Minister was involved in another scandal by posting and then deleting a tweet that inadvertently revealed part of the regime's strategy for "confrontation on social media", which detailed the use of dozens of corporate accounts aimed at digital "combat" from the Institute of Information and Social Communication.

With a bottle of water in hand, the television powered by a generator, and the slogan of the "culture of detail," Chapman Waugh has established himself as one of the most symbolic faces of empty rhetoric and governmental confusion in the face of a national crisis that, rather than being resolved, worsens each day.