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The "La Colonia Española" Children's Hospital in Santiago de Cuba is lacking distilled water, a basic medical supply without which the hospitalized children cannot receive their necessary tests, reported independent journalist Yosmany Mayeta Labrada on Facebook.
The alarm was raised when a family member of a patient posted a desperate plea on social media: "Please, if anyone knows where to find distilled water, I need you to let me know, as there are children admitted waiting for their additional tests at the Children's Hospital la Colonia. Where are we headed?"
Behind the public outcry lies a deeper reality: the problem is not episodic, but structural.
An anonymous source connected to the healthcare sector, who contacted Mayeta Labrada, explained that the shortfall is due to management failures at the hospital itself, including unsuccessful contracts with companies such as Renté, Parenterales, or Retomed.
"It is generally due to contracting issues. Difficulties with transportation or because the water is very dirty and it's impossible to treat it," the source noted, adding that it is "a matter solely related to the institution, the hospital."
The same source warned that bringing distilled water individually does not solve anything: "With half a liter or five liters, this problem is not resolved."
Distilled water is an essential resource in any hospital: it is used to dilute intravenous medications, conduct laboratory tests, sterilize equipment, and operate nebulizers. Its absence directly halts medical care.
While responsibilities are divided among contracts, companies, and bureaucracy, those who pay the price are the most vulnerable: sick children waiting for procedures that cannot be performed without something as basic as treated water.
This episode is not an isolated incident at this center. The "La Colonia" Children's Hospital has a long history of complaints: foul odor in the guard station, presence of animals in the rooms, bathrooms in deplorable conditions, terrible hygiene, and theft from patients.
The deterioration of the hospital reflects the collapse of the Cuban healthcare system as a whole, a result of 67 years of dictatorial management.
In July 2025, the Minister of Public Health himself, José Ángel Portal Miranda, acknowledged before the National Assembly a unprecedented structural crisis, with only 30% of the basic medicine supply available and an infant mortality rate that doubled between 2016 and 2025.
The Cuban regime has systematically dismantled a healthcare system that it once showcased as its greatest achievement, and today it cannot even guarantee treated water in a pediatric hospital.
As Mayeta Labrada summarized in her complaint: "Public health cannot depend on luck, nor on whether someone resolves outside what the system does not guarantee inside."
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