Three months without water: Cuban mother shows how she managed to do the laundry

A Cuban mother identified on Instagram as Rachel (@rachelmolina_vlog_humor_reels) posted a reel with her daughter showing how they wash clothes with rainwater after three months without supply from the pipes in their home.

"Hello. If you want to know how we wash in Cuba after three months without water, stay tuned because this video is for you," Rachel says at the beginning of the clip.

In the images, a mother and her daughter wash white socks and other garments by hand, using laundry soap and rainwater that they collected during a downpour. As they chat, they make fists with the socks and laugh. They also gather more rainwater in other containers to use later.

The author of the video clarifies that rainwater "is not suitable for drinking or bathing," but that in the complete absence of supply, it is the only available option for washing.

Rachel also explains that the video doesn't show all the clothes she washed that day: "It was just the part that I managed to film because I had to do the rest quickly and speed things up before it stopped raining."

It is estimated that over 3.1 million Cubans —about 30% of the population— experience total or partial water cuts. In Havana, the number of affected individuals rose from 200,000 in April to more than 500,000 in July, according to specialists from Aguas de La Habana.

In August, a breakdown in the 78-inch pipeline of the Southern Basin left six municipalities in the capital without water.

Outside the capital, the situation is equally grave. In Holguín, there are communities that have gone more than five months without a drop of water from the supply networks. In Guantánamo, the distribution cycles reach 25 days and in Ciego de Ávila, reports indicate up to 36 days without supply.

The crisis has structural causes: aging water infrastructure, decades of underinvestment, and an almost complete dependence on electric pumping to distribute water—approximately 87% of the system relies on electricity—making it extremely vulnerable to the chronic blackouts the island experiences.