Seniors and children with buckets, barrels, and containers in the street: that was the scene on 12th Street between 7 and 9 in Santiago de las Vegas, in the Boyeros municipality, south of Havana, where entire families had to leave their homes to collect water from a truck due to a complete lack of supply.
One of the most distressing images of this crisis is seeing elderly people living alone carrying buckets of water to their homes. There has been no drinking water service for days, leaving people unable to wash, bathe, or flush the toilet.
Cuban elderly people are not only suffering from power outages, poor hygiene in their neighborhoods and homes, and a lack of food. There are days when even drinking water is scarce.
The video documenting the situation was shared on Facebook by José Díaz Silva. He explained that the complaint comes from a coalition of Cuban opposition organizations: Movimiento Democracia (MD), Movimiento Opositores por una Nueva República (MONR), ARC, and Cuba Decide.
"Once again, the difficult reality faced by our people is evident. In Santiago de las Vegas, entire families are forced to go out with buckets and containers to collect water from a truck, because their homes do not receive the necessary supply," they report in the post.
The water scarcity worsened since January 2026, when the supply sources were virtually depleted, affecting over 40,000 people. The municipal government of Boyeros mobilized more than 50 water trucks and established a new supply line from Bejucal as short-term solutions.
On July 15, Aguas de La Habana reported new disruptions in the area due to a break in the Aguada del Cura equipment, with Electromechanical work ongoing to minimize the interruption.
The scene in Santiago de las Vegas reflects a water crisis that already impacts over 500,000 residents of Havana, according to specialists from Aguas de La Habana.
The number has steadily increased: in April, there were approximately 200,000 affected individuals; in May, it rose to 376,055; and in July, it exceeded half a million. Nationally, nearly 2.7 million Cubans face daily challenges in accessing drinking water.
87% of Cuba's water system depends on the electrical grid, which means that every power outage also halts the water pumping.
This is compounded by the extreme deterioration of the infrastructure: between 40% and 70% of the water pumped in Havana is lost before it reaches homes due to leaks, and the government itself acknowledged in 2023 the existence of more than 4,000 active leaks in the national network.
In Boyeros, protests over water shortages and blackouts have multiplied this month. On July 5th, residents of Mantilla erupted after going up to seven days without water.
For those without internet access, the informal market has become the only resource. A water truck can cost between 18,000 and 26,000 Cuban pesos, and up to 40,000 or 50,000 in the hardest-hit areas, while the minimum monthly wage is 3,210 pesos as of July 1, 2026.
"As citizens suffer from the lack of a basic resource like water, the abandonment and despair of a people who only ask for dignified living conditions continues to grow," concluded the opposition organizations in their statement.
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