The Cuban leader Miguel Díaz-Canel visited the province of Mayabeque on Tuesday and inspected the water supply source known as “El Gato”, the main supplying system for the east of Havana, in what the regime presented as part of the official monitoring of the water crisis affecting millions of Cubans.
The system has 17 wells and supplies more than 27% of the capital's population, including the municipalities of Regla, Guanabacoa, San Miguel del Padrón, Habana del Este, Cotorro, and Diez de Octubre.
According to the site Presidencia y Gobierno de Cuba, alongside the leader were the Minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces, Álvaro López Miera; the First Deputy Prime Minister Inés María Chapman Waugh; the Minister of Energy and Mines, Vicente de la O Levy; and the President of the National Institute of Hydraulic Resources, Antonio Rodríguez Rodríguez.
The investment program discussed during the visit includes eliminating leaks in wells and pipelines, completing pumping equipment, and ensuring the electrical stability of the facility. Díaz-Canel described a two-phase strategy: “The first stage involves aligning the electrical assurance we can provide with electronic groups to prevent service disruption during blackouts. At the same time, we are working on the installations to move towards the final stage, which will be based on renewable sources.”
The visit to "El Gato" marks the third water inspection by Díaz-Canel in less than two weeks. On August 28, he supervised the facilities at Paso Seco in Boyeros, and on September 3, he toured the Southern Basin System, where he publicly acknowledged that the regime cannot guarantee the 10 to 12 hours of electrical stability that the pumping systems require to operate normally.
The official plan includes generators for 29 supply sources in Havana as a short-term solution, while the crisis deepens: in July 2026, more than 500,000 residents of Havana experienced irregular access to water, and at the national level, the National Institute of Hydraulic Resources reported that 2.7 million Cubans faced difficulties with access to water, according to data from the agency gathered by the Los Angeles Times.
87% of Cuba's water supply system depends on the electrical grid, making each blackout a simultaneous interruption of water pumping. In June 2026, the hydraulic system was operating with barely 37% of the necessary fuel.
The tour on Tuesday went beyond just water. Díaz-Canel also visited the "Boris Luis Santa Coloma" Agroindustrial Sugar Central in Madruga, where he urged managers to combine the sugar harvest with local productions such as raspadura and cane syrup. He then stopped by the "La Esperanza" farm, where he praised the producer Lázaro Fundora—who manages over 30 hectares, more than 200 beehives, and solar panels—calling him, "This man is a sage." The final stop was the "Cuban-Vietnamese Friendship" Base Business Unit in San José de Las Lajas, dedicated to the genetic improvement of poultry.
The tour pattern has generated skepticism. A slide accidentally leaked by Canal Caribe on July 17 revealed that the internal objective of the tours included actions to "prevent a social outbreak," not just to resolve the structural problems faced by the population.
Díaz-Canel promised the first visible results in the water supply by the end of September, with a consolidation expected for October.
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