Madrid/The supply crisis that affects the entire island has generated the informal commercialization of water in different quantities and modalities. In addition to the illegal sale of pipes – recognized even by the official press itself – that provide affected customers with a service that they should receive for free, this improvised business has “diversified” into buckets, gallons, bottles and even glasses.
In Santiago de Cuba, a glass of water costs up to 50 pesos, as admitted this Monday by the half official Sierra Maestrawhich denounces this sale as “shameful,” while recognizing that it has become normalized to the point of becoming “custom, landscape, routine.” The small bottle – which Santiago residents call “balita” and is equivalent to approximately a third of a liter – is also sold in the province for 70 pesos.
The article describes this sale as a “moral fracture,” although it points out that it would be “hypocritical and even cruel” to blame the sellers when they do it out of necessity, “to buy bread.” And it goes further: “This need is the result of failures that as a society and as institutions we must recognize without euphemisms.”
another article from the same newspaperpublished earlier this month, revealed that water from tanker trucks – which are requested free of charge from the state company, but which, according to the media’s own complaints, never arrive if they are not paid informally – were sold for 15,000 pesos, while a tank of water could cost 600 pesos.
“This need is the result of failures that as a society and as institutions we must recognize without euphemisms”
An 80-year-old retiree who carried water from the river in the Santiago municipality of Palma Soriano, interviewed then by the official media, said that water had not arrived in his area all summer and that is why he had to get it that way. Adding up what he and his elderly wife earned, he couldn’t afford to pay for one of those illegal tankers or tankers: current pensions in Cuba are around 4,000 pesos, less than six dollars.
“We have almost forgotten about the aqueduct service, since since July it has not entered zone 5, which is mine, and we are aware that we are not among the worst,” said the old man from Palma Soriano.
Maricela Fernández Hernández, general director of Aguas Turquino, described the outlook in the province as “very difficult.” He explained that the breaks in the conductors add to other problems that affect the supply: drought and blackouts. “The generation deficit of the national electrical system prevents us from giving continuity to the cycles and, mainly, to pumping and re-pumping,” he declared.
Despite the recent photovoltaic installations that boast the official mediathe directors of Aguas Turquino admitted that these systems depend on the availability of sunlight and that’s why they don’t solve alone the interruption of pumping during blackouts. The alarm is greater in municipalities such as Contramaestre, San Luis, Songo-La Maya, Tercer Frente and Palma Soriano. As an example, Sierra Maestra He says that residents of San Luis have not received water since January and that the situation has especially affected vulnerable elderly people.
More than 3.5 million citizens are affected by water supply problems, mostly due to “the lack of pumping caused by power outages.”
The water crisis has spread for months throughout the Island, while the energy situation deteriorates. In the last Situation report of the United Nations about the situation in Cubait is reported that more than 3.5 million citizens are affected by water supply problems, mostly due “to the lack of pumping caused by power outages.” The report also indicates that, due to this deficit, supply cycles through pipes exceed 60 days in some locations, which aggravates the risk of disease outbreaks. The UN reminds us that access to water is a fundamental human right, “not a privilege.”
In Havana, residents of the Diez de Octubre municipality tell 14ymedio that the informal sale of water has expanded. A liter and a half costs around 100 pesos. The large tanks that the so-called “water carriers” transport on electric tricycles – a business that has emerged in the capital after the worsening of the crisis in recent months – can cost between 10,000 and 15,000 pesos for 1,000 liters, and between 2,500 and 3,000 for 250 liters.
On social networks there are advertisements for gallons of water for 350 pesosas well as complaints about “favoritism” in the supply and the sale of services that should be free, such as pipes in those areas where pumping is affected. The situation has unleashed numerous citizen protests in different parts of the Island in recent months, expressed in banging pots and pans, blocking public roads and burning garbage in the streets of the capital.
Cuban state companies have recognized the seriousness of the situation and attribute the problems to the oil embargo decreed by the United States at the end of January, arguing that the lack of fuel caused by the sanctions makes it difficult to generate electricity and, with it, the pumping of water. But the water crisis predates the current energy collapse, which has come to worsen the deterioration accumulated over decades due to the lack of maintenance of the water supply system.
