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A neighbor from the municipality of Ciego de Ávila reported that her block has gone 36 days without being able to store water, caught in a double crisis, as prolonged power outages prevent the filling of cisterns and tanks when the supply cycle arrives.
The letter was published in the Open Letters section of the official newspaper Invasor, in a message signed by Martha Méndez Mellor, a resident of Independencia Street No. 24B, between Marcial Gómez and Abraham Delgado, in Circuit 1 of the city center.
According to Méndez, the water cycle arrives every 17 days, but the low pressure in the network and power outages make it impossible to make use of the liquid when it appears.
The most recent episode illustrates the magnitude of the problem. In this regard, he recounted that on Saturday, March 28, "they gave us one more day in the water cycle, but it was catastrophic with the electricity; we were without power for 22 hours, and when it came back at 2:00 am, they had cut off the water since 8:30 in the evening."
Before that 17-day period, the neighborhood had already experienced another 19 days without water, bringing the total to 36 days without being able to fill a single tank.
The neighbor described the composition of her residential area to emphasize the humanitarian severity of the situation, and insisted that there are “people with disabilities, bedridden elderly, pregnant women, small children, and cancer patients, and like the rest of the population, we need water.”
Méndez reported that he approached officials from the Municipal and Provincial People's Power to request a review of the supply valve and at least three continuous hours of electricity to allow the tanks to fill, "but the response was null."
They also did not receive the water truck service that, according to the neighbor, is usually activated in emergency situations. "We know that when events like this occur, water is provided to the population using water trucks, but we haven't received that either," she lamented.
The crisis is framed within a structural collapse that has been affecting the province for years. Ciego de Ávila has remained in a state of maximum outages since March 16, with outages exceeding 30 hours per day.
The president of the National Institute of Hydraulic Resources acknowledged that 87% of the population supplied by the water system relies on the deteriorated National Electric System for pumping, and that out of 480 essential stations, only 135 are on protected circuits.
The water crisis in the province is a long-standing issue, as in May 2025 the city was receiving only 280 liters per second when it needs 600, and two pumps that could double the supply remained stuck in a workshop in Mayabeque due to a lack of imported wire.
Méndez concluded his letter with a direct appeal to the authorities. "When there is a community living amidst so many difficulties, such as those we face today, it is necessary to address the issues more efficiently, seek solutions, alternatives, and palliatives, and oversee the work of those who—directly—provide essential services to that same population," he summarized.
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