A Cuban woman reported on social media the terrible appearance of the water she receives in her home and warned about the risks of consuming it without boiling it, amid a supply crisis that raises concerns about the quality of the water supply in various areas of the country.
In a video published this Friday on Instagram, the user Melanye Sánchez (@im____melanye) showed a dark and cloudy liquid that she described as "churre" and announced that she would strain it before using it. The woman advised her followers to boil the water or find a safer source for consumption.
"It's something incredible, please boil the water or, if you can, find a more potable source; otherwise, the diseases this can cause are countless," she warned before closing the recording with an exclamation: "We are drinking mud."
The complaint adds to reports disseminated in recent months regarding water with sediments, foul odor, and muddy appearance in homes across various provinces.
In Camagüey, images showed brown liquid coming from a faucet, while residents described the supply as "pure mud."
In Cienfuegos, residents reported muddy water with a foul smell, amid suspicions of possible connections between drinking water pipes and storm drains. In August, a resident of Havana claimed that sewage was coming out of the pipes in his home.
The deterioration of hydraulic networks and electrical interruptions worsen supply issues. The reliance on electric pumping systems, leaks, and aging pipes jeopardize water distribution and heighten concerns about its quality.
However, the cloudy appearance of the liquid does not allow for determining on its own whether it is contaminated or identifying the source of the problem in each case.
The alert becomes significant following the recent warnings from pediatrician Vivian Mena Miranda, vice president of the Cuban Society of Pediatrics, who raised concerns about an increase in hepatitis and diarrheal diseases in children, as well as the circulation of norovirus and rotavirus.
"If you do not have safe water, you cannot prevent diseases," stated the specialist.
Since January, outbreaks of hepatitis A have been reported in at least six provinces.
The supply crisis has also reached a national scale. The government acknowledged that 2.7 million people are experiencing total or partial disruption in their water supply, while a United Nations estimate published in September raised the potential number of affected individuals to 3.5 million.
The recommendation from the woman to boil the water or seek a safer source aligns with the health warnings issued throughout the year in various provinces and with an alert from the United States Embassy in Cuba regarding the increase in diarrheal diseases associated with pathogens such as E. coli, norovirus, and Shigella.
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