Marcel Hernández, a young Cuban, decided to tackle the water crisis with his own hands and started digging a handmade well in his backyard, using a pick and shovel, documenting each stage of the process on his social media with videos that have gone viral.
In his most recent post, Marcel celebrated a milestone that encapsulates weeks of effort: the well started to yield water.
"Day 8. We are now over three meters deep. We are still struggling, but it’s starting to give water. Yesterday it yielded two buckets and today one. Little by little, the well is filling up, but we need to rest our arms because this is 'a crazy love,' truly," he said.
"For me, this day was really important because while I was breaking stones, water kept coming out, and it bothered me to work like that, but it was what we were looking for," he wrote.
Cubans are supporting him on social media
The followers of Marcel have responded with the humor that characterizes Cubans in the face of adversity. “You’re going to reach the Earth's core,” wrote a user. Another applied an unyielding mathematical logic: “If he gave two yesterday and one today, then tomorrow there won't be any water.”
There were those who compared Marcel to an oil explorer. “Day one searching for oil where there is none.”
Another person suggested, "On the way, you should build a bunker," and another one warned with creative geography: "If you keep digging down, you’ll end up in Australia, for those who say the Earth is round."
The spirits also rose with personal experiences. A follower from Arroyo Naranjo shared: “A well was dug in the backyard, 12 meters deep. It was done with pick and shovel, but we worked in pairs. There was a little more time to rest, but it was a tough job. Keep going, it’s still providing water to this day. Don’t lose faith.”
Marcel's achievement is the result of a need
Power outages in Cuba result in prolonged interruptions of drinking water service across the country. In some regions, people go over a month without receiving the precious liquid in their homes, and some are forced to pay for access to water in their houses.
In neighborhoods of Matanzas, the number of artisanal wells doubled in just a few months, increasing from 20 to over 40 in a single district, due to failures in the pumping system. The authorities projected new wells to alleviate the critical water situation.
The water transported in trucks exceeds 12,000 Cuban pesos, making artisanal drilling the only economically viable option for many families. In Havana more than 248,000 people suffer from constant supply interruptions.
The situation is equally serious in other provinces. A town in Pinar del Río has been without water service for more than two years.
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