Cuban leader Miguel Díaz-Canel visited the Paso Seco water supply source in Boyeros on Thursday, as the water crisis in Havana affects hundreds of thousands of people and has forced families to carry buckets, buy water trucks at prohibitive prices, collect rainwater, and even resort to manual pumps.
The leader toured the facility to oversee emergency works aimed at ensuring the water supply to the capital, according to the Presidencia de Cuba.
The visit takes place just two days after residents of Old Havana took to the streets to protest the lack of water and electricity.
The emergency escalated on August 21, when a break in the 78-inch pipeline 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 has been around for much longer.
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 this Thursday the poor conditions of its infrastructure.
Rubén Campos Olmo, the general director of the Electric Union (UNE), admitted to the official press that "we are truly starting 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 power outages or prolonged breakdowns.
"These engines are scheduled to arrive within the next seventy-two hours and be connected, so that in the event of a system failure, prolonged disruption, or breakdown, they can be put into operation," explained Campos Olmo.
The dependence on electricity constitutes one of the main weak points of the system: approximately 87% of the water supply infrastructure relies on the National Electric System, which means that power outages also halt pumping.
This is compounded by the deterioration of the pipelines. Some of the main pipes in Havana have been in operation for between 60 and 70 years, while between 40% and 70% of the water pumped may be lost due to leaks before reaching consumers.
Only this month, a breakdown in the Gato System again caused disruptions in Regla, East Havana, San Miguel del Padrón, Guanabacoa, and Diez de Octubre.
The authorities are now proposing to install solar panels at pumping and re-pumping stations, although they did not provide a specific date for the completion of this project.
Díaz-Canel called for resolving the issues "as quickly as possible."
From 200,000 to more than half a million residents of Havana affected
Official figures show how quickly the crisis has worsened.
In April, around 200,000 residents of Havana were experiencing issues with the water supply. In May, the National Institute of Hydraulic Resources raised the figure to 376,055 people.
By July, specialists from Aguas de La Habana were already estimating 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 around 2.7 million Cubans lacked regular access to drinking water, while a large portion of the rest of the population received the service intermittently.
Buckets, rain, and manual pumps: this is how the people of Havana are coping with the crisis
Behind the statistics are the daily struggles to obtain something as basic as water for drinking, cooking, or bathing.
On August 19th, a Cuban identified as Jose Alberto showed 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 it takes to fetch 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 it. I had to go home without any water and figure out what to do next," he reported.
The man summed up his situation in a single phrase: "The biggest blockade we feel is living without water, without electricity, and without basic conditions."
Other recent testimonies show to what extent 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 by themselves 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 resorted to collecting rainwater to meet their basic needs.
In East Havana, authorities announced 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 sarcasm among Cubans who questioned how a technology used for generations could be showcased as a sign of progress.
The deterioration of the service has also driven an informal water market, where a 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 under construction next to the Technological University of Havana (CUJAE).
The installation is part of four systems of 50 MW planned at different locations in the country, totaling a combined capacity of 200 MW.
According to the official schedule, the technical setup of "Habana 220" is expected to be completed by September 30, with its operational launch planned for October 30.
The tour concluded at the state-owned mipyme Servivip, located in Cotorro, a company dedicated to hydraulic network work that supplies over 80% of water through truck deliveries in Havana.
Díaz-Canel was accompanied, among other officials, by the Minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces, Álvaro López Miera, and the First Deputy Prime Minister, Inés María Chapman Waugh.
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