Residents of the Modelo neighborhood in Camagüey have been without water since 2019

Residents of the Modelo neighborhood in the city of Camagüey reported that they have been without water for over 6 years despite a million-dollar investment in a water supply system.

According to the report by independent journalist José Luis Tan Estrada, residents of the neighborhood report that “since 2019, they have been facing a critical situation with the water supply despite the fact that, in that same year, an aqueduct was installed funded as a donation by Saudi Arabia.”

The water service operated for just a few days, and since then, they have only received water on a few occasions before returning to a total shortage, the neighbors told Estrada: "About ten times, for three or four days."

In 2024, the crisis worsened precisely when they began to publicly complain about their situation, filing formal complaints to the Meridiano program of Cadena Agramonte and the Provincial Water Company.

"Following these complaints, officials visited the area and sent a water truck three times, which was insufficient for the community, which includes the bakery, the medical clinic, the pharmacy, the Joven Club, and hundreds of homes," explains Estrada.

Despite the fact that some houses have wells, these are contaminated, the journalist added.

"Meanwhile, the neighborhood continues without an official explanation clarifying why the water mains investment never operated stably, nor when a basic essential service will be restored," the report concludes.

In September, authorities admitted that the water crisis in Cuba has reached very alarming levels: More than three million people are currently experiencing total or partial lack of this resource throughout the country, according to official data released this Monday by national television.

The water shortage, a persistent issue in recent years that the Cuban government continues to leave unresolved, affects over 3,100,000 inhabitants of the island.

The figure would represent around 30 percent of the Cuban population, which totals 9,740,000 inhabitants, according to the latest statistics published by the National Office of Statistics and Information (ONEI).

The authorities attribute the inability to ensure a water supply to three causes: the drought, the energy contingency and breakdowns of the pumping machines.