Looking for Water at Compostela and Obrapia Streets

In recent days Havana’s water shortage has worsened. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 13 February 2020 — Since dawn, in many of the capital city’s neighborhoods, the question is when the water will come. The supply has been zero for weeks in some areas and in others the cycles have lengthened and 10 days can pass without the liquid running through the pipes.

“In this block there hasn’t been water for more than a week, not a drop. It is incredible, because you can go around the corner and there’s water, and there’s none here,” says Raquel while rushing with her bucket in hand to try to fill it from a tanker truck that just arrived.

“Look, sometimes you lose patience, it is not easy not to have water for the basics. The other day, in front of the fire station, the neighbors closed the street to get attention. It is not the first time they’ve done it. When you see that nobody cares what we are going through, it is understood that these things will happen,” says Raquel.

“I do this voluntarily. I came to fill the hotel cisterns when it closed and I was surplus. I came for people to get them at least a little water, because I know the situation well,” said the driver of the water truck. “I know what this is like because I was born and raised here, in the heart of Old Havana.”

Women, men and children go from one place to another with their containers. It is a scene that is repeated every day.

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