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The authorities of Camagüey acknowledged on Wednesday a severe national shortage of chlorine gas and alum sulfate — the essential chemicals for treating water in purification plants — and requested that the public boil water at home as an emergency measure, according to a statement released by Radio Camagüey.
Daniel Fuentes Milanés, provincial director of the Camagüey Water and Sanitation Company, pointed out that the electrical deficit worsens the situation even further and that it is necessary to resort to alternative treatment methods in each household.
The irony of the request is that the population barely manages to find cooking methods, as blackouts lasting over 20 hours and the lack of liquefied petroleum gas have forced people to turn to coal, which is becoming increasingly expensive in the informal market.
"As a result, pharmaceutical workers will increase the production of sodium hypochlorite at 1%, which will allow the population greater access to this product for manual chlorination. Many homes in the province have some alternative devices, such as homemade filters or those sold in the Commerce network, which also help improve water quality," the official stated.
In the municipalities of Nuevitas and Guáimaro, as well as at the Las Flores Water Treatment Plant, authorities also indicated the need to settle the water, given that the reservoirs in those areas have higher turbidity.
Damarys Guillén Luis, technical director of the Provincial Company of Pharmacies and Optics of Camagüey, specified the instructions for the use of hypochlorite: "This is an extemporaneous product, which lasts for thirty days after being prepared in our units, which is why storage is not recommended. It should be used at a rate of three drops per liter of water for chlorination, and one should wait at least ten minutes after adding the product before starting to consume it."
The official warned that the company is facing a shortage of containers, so the public can bring their own containers to the designated pharmacies for bulk sales in the city: those on Avenida de La Libertad, the Pediatric Hospital, Álvarez Fuente, the corner of Martí and San Pablo streets, La Borla, and Plaza de Méndez.
"At this moment, two thirty-milliliter bottles are being dispensed, and depending on the availability of hypochlorite, it could go up to four bottles per person," noted Guillén Luis.
The recommendation to boil water clashes directly with the energy crisis that the Island is experiencing.
This Wednesday, the national electricity availability was only 970 MW compared to a demand of 2,525 MW, with a projected deficit of 2,000 MW during peak nighttime hours, which translates to blackouts of up to 20 and 25 hours daily in several provinces.
The health background makes the situation even more urgent. In April 2026, Camagüey recorded between 30 and 40 daily positive cases of hepatitis A, a disease that is transmitted through contaminated water or food, although the authorities refused to formally acknowledge it as an outbreak.
The water crisis has national dimensions: about 2.7 million Cubans lack regular access to drinking water and nearly 10 million face intermittent supply, while the hydraulic system operates with only 37% of the necessary fuel for pumping.
On June 7, the journalist from the state channel Canal Caribe Gisela García Rivero acknowledged that "currently all provinces in the country have reported cases of hepatitis A," with the largest outbreaks concentrated in Havana, Matanzas, Santiago de Cuba, Ciego de Ávila, and Camagüey.
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