The Cuban leader Miguel Díaz-Canel visited the supply source of Paso Seco in Boyeros this Thursday, at a time when the water crisis in Havana is impacting hundreds of thousands of people and has forced families to carry buckets, purchase water trucks at prohibitive prices, collect rainwater, and even resort to manual pumps.
The leader toured the facility to oversee emergency work aimed at ensuring water pumping to the capital, as reported by the Presidencia de Cuba.
The visit takes place just two days after residents of Old Havana protested due to the lack of water and electricity.
The emergency worsened on August 21, when a break in the 78-inch pipe of the Southern Basin left six municipalities in the capital without water: Plaza de la Revolución, Diez de Octubre, Cerro, Centro Habana, Habana Vieja, and part of Boyeros.
But the problem dates back much further.
A deteriorated and vulnerable network to blackouts
Paso Seco is a strategic point for the supply of southern and central Havana. The authorities themselves acknowledged on Thursday the poor condition of its infrastructure.
Rubén Campos Olmo, general director of the Electric Union (UNE), admitted to the official press that "we truly started from a critical situation."
The immediate response involves moving backup electric generators to Paso Seco and other supply sources, with the aim of keeping the pumps operational during outages or in the event of prolonged failures.
"These engines are expected to arrive within the next seventy-two hours and be connected, so that in the event of a system failure or prolonged disruption or malfunction, they can be put into operation," explained Campos Olmo.
The instability of the National Electric System is a critical factor for water supply in Cuba: 87% of the supply infrastructure relies on electricity, which means that blackouts directly impact the operation of pumping stations and, consequently, the continuity of water supply.
This is compounded by the deterioration of the pipes. Some of the main pipelines in Havana have been in use for between 60 and 70 years, while between 40% and 70% of the water pumped can be lost due to leaks before reaching consumers.
Only this month, a malfunction in the Gato System caused disruptions in Regla, Habana del Este, San Miguel del Padrón, Guanabacoa, and Diez de Octubre.
The authorities are now considering installing solar panels at pumping and re-pumping stations, although they did not provide a specific date for the completion of this project.
Díaz-Canel urged to resolve the issues "as soon as possible."
From 200,000 to over half a million affected residents of Havana
The official figures demonstrate how rapidly the crisis has worsened.
In April, around 200,000 residents of Havana were experiencing supply issues. In May, the National Institute of Hydraulic Resources raised the figure to 376,055 people.
By July, specialists from Aguas de La Habana had already estimated the number of affected individuals to be over 500,000, approximately a quarter of the capital's population.
The problem extends far beyond Havana. Official data released in May indicated that about 2.7 million Cubans lacked regular access to drinking water, while a significant portion of the rest of the population received the service intermittently.
Buckets, rain, and hand pumps: this is how people in Havana are facing the crisis
Behind the statistics are the daily struggles to obtain something as basic as water for drinking, cooking, or personal hygiene.
On August 19th, a Cuban identified as Jose Alberto shared on social media how he went out with a wheelbarrow to fetch water and returned empty-handed because there was no electricity to operate the pumps.
"Look at the effort that goes into fetching water. On top of that, I couldn't get any water because there's no electricity, so the water has no pressure, and that's that. I had to go home without any water, trying to figure out what to do now," he recounted.
The man summed up his situation in one phrase: "The greatest blockade we feel is living without water, without electricity, and without basic conditions."
Other recent testimonies highlight how obtaining water has become a daily burden for many families.
At the beginning of August, two girls around seven years old were seen carrying gallons of water on their own from the cistern of a primary school in Havana.
Another Cuban reported going nine months without receiving water in her neighborhood, while families in other areas of the country have started collecting rainwater to meet their basic needs.
In East Havana, the authorities announced earlier this month the installation of 20 manual pumps to initially benefit around 3,000 people. The municipal government presented the mechanism as an "innovative manual pumping system," provoking criticism and irony among Cubans who questioned the showcasing of a technology that has been used for generations as a sign of progress.
The deterioration of the service has also driven an informal water market, where one tank truck can reach prices in the tens of thousands of pesos, beyond the reach of many families.
Generators now and batteries for October
In addition to Paso Seco, Díaz-Canel visited the Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) "Habana 220," which is being constructed next to the Technological University of Havana (CUJAE).
The installation is part of four 50 MW systems planned at various locations across the country, for a total capacity of 200 MW.
According to the official schedule, the technical setup of "Habana 220" is expected to be completed by September 30, and its launch is planned for October 30.
The tour concluded at the state-owned micro, small, and medium-sized enterprise Servivip, located in Cotorro, a company dedicated to hydraulic network work that supplies over 80% of water through tank trucks in Havana.
Díaz-Canel was accompanied, among other officials, by the Minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces, Álvaro López Miera, and the First Vice Minister Inés María Chapman Waugh.
Filed under: