The Cuban journalist Yirmara Torres Hernández reported this Friday that residents of Salamanca and San Gabriel streets, in the Los Mangos and Simpson neighborhoods of Matanzas, have gone eight months without a single drop of water due to a valve closed by Aqueduct workers.
In a video published on Facebook, Torres explained that the neighbors have gone to the Municipal and Provincial Aqueduct, have presented the issue to Population Service officials, and have even tried to open the valve by their own means.
According to reports, the workers from the water supply system themselves closed the valve, and despite being aware of the situation for months, they have not returned to resolve the issue.
The former president of the Union of Journalists of Cuba (UPEC) in Matanzas noted that at the point where the key is located, vegetation has already begun to grow around it after so much time.
Torres questioned the reasons for the closure and stated that the neighbors are unaware of why the decision was made. He also emphasized the proximity of the Aqueduct offices to the affected area, yet the problem remains unsolved.
The journalist also pointed out that several state water trucks circulate in the area, but none have delivered water to the affected residents during these past eight months.
Only on one occasion did a delegate from the People's Power manage to get a water truck to deliver water to the block, a benefit that also reached the residents of the affected area.
The complaint reflects the frustration of the neighbors regarding a situation that, according to Torres, is known by municipal and provincial officials. "Eight months without water. Who cares?" he questioned during the video.
This is not the first time Torres has raised his voice about the water crisis in his province. In May, he reported that his block had been without water for almost two months, while the liquid was being wasted through leaks on Compostela Street.
In July, residents of the municipality of Colón reported three months without drinking water and power outages lasting more than 72 hours without institutional response. By mid-August, a power failure left all of Cárdenas without water, the second most important city in the province.
Data from April regarding water supply in Matanzas revealed that over 300,000 residents in the province lacked stability in their water supply, and of the 518,000 residents who receive water through pipes, more than 29,000 faced ongoing shortages due to breaks in the networks.
That same month, Vice Prime Minister Inés María Chapman met with officials from the Aqueduct in Matanzas without offering concrete solutions or timelines.
As the only structural response, the authorities projected the construction of a new well over 20 meters deep with a submersible pump of 100 liters per second, with no defined execution date, in order to benefit more than 60,000 residents of the Versalles popular council and the industrial area of the Athens of Cuba.
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