Havana residents have responded angrily with comments on social media and official media, as municipalities have been without water for days.
14ymedio, Havana, July 22, 2024 — A new breakdown in Havana’s hydraulic infrastructure is making the water shortage in the capital catastrophic. As reported by Aguas de La Habana on Monday, an “electrical failure” Sunday night in the high-voltage lines that feed the South Basin supply source caused the pumping to be completely interrupted in a “sudden way,” which caused, in turn, several “battering ram blows” – a sudden increase in pressure – to the main pipe, which then collapsed “in three places.”
The authorities promise that “the brigades for repair and maintenance will work without interruption on the transmission network to repair the breakdowns in the shortest possible time at the source of supply.” However, the people of Havana have responded angrily with comments on social networks and official media, since it is not the only breakdown in the Aguas de La Habana system, and some municipalities have been without water for days.
“I would like to know if the people in Altahabana and Boyeros who receive water from Paso Seco are also affected, because we haven’t received it for five days, and on Telegram they only refer to the impacts on the South Basin,” Manuel Quesada commented on Cubadebate.
“That happened on Sunday the 21st, but I live on 10th Street between 21 and 23rd, El Vedado, and we have been affected by the water supply since last month”
Willian Hernandez Torres sounded desperate: “We need water now. That happened on Sunday the 21st, but I live on 10th Street between 21 and 23rd, El Vedado, and we have been affected by the water supply since last month. Right now I haven’t received water since Saturday, July 13, and the reserves have already run out. I won’t be able to go to work, I have to feed myself, the neighbors can’t help us because they are in the same boat, and the water trucks haven’t come here.”
There were multiple protests from El Vedado. “I have a 91-year-old woman at home, bedridden, who cannot move, with very affected skin and in dire need of hygiene,” said Alina Ruiz, who indicated her address – between 11 and 13th – and said that she has not had water service for eight days. “We have gone twice to Aguas de La Habana (at 35th and 4th) to ask for a water truck; they put us on a list, but nothing has happened. We are desperate.”
This Sunday the Tribuna de La Habana reported the rupture of “six pieces of equipment” in the South Basin, which causes “difficulties” in the service for La Rampa, the “most vulnerable of all municipalities” because of its 13 districts.
“This failure of the water pipes is typical for several reasons, the main one being the forced halt in the pumping”
According to the same comment, on Saturday the first secretary of the Provincial Committee of the Communist Party, Liván Izquierdo Alonso, and the governor of Havana, Yanet Hernández Pérez, met with managers of Aguas de La Habana to “point out actions” to supply the “precious liquid” to “affected” municipalities, but they prioritized water truck service only for hospitals and polyclinics.
The affected areas, according to Tribuna, are Central Havana, Old Havana, Cerro, Diez de Octubre and Plaza de la Revolución, but also the “west system,” specifically the upper part of La Lisa, Arroyo Arenas, San Agustín and Pocito Palmar.
On Cubadebate, Zeida Peña Santiesteban wrote: “The problem of the water supply is exacerbated every day that passes, and now this has happened. Since November last year in Centro Habana, on Calle Reina between Chávez and Gervasio, in buildings 458, 460, 462, there has been no water, and no one worries about a solution, or at least that is the perception of the inhabitants.” The woman also said that she had gone to the provincial government and the Aguas de La Habana office of Parque Trillo, in vain:
“The solution cannot be to send water trucks as needed but to check and investigate if there’s a problem with some faucet handle or a valve that doesn’t work. If you have to tear up the street, do it and fix the problem. This has nothing to do with any U.S. blockade; it’s the internal blockade and the lack of management of the agencies involved.”
“The solution cannot be to send water trucks when possible but to check and investigate if the problem is some faucet handle or valve that doesn’t work”
Other commentators extended themselves in technical details, such as D’Oro: “This is a typical failure in water pipes, in this case for various reasons, and the main one is the forced stoppage of pumping due to a sudden electrical failure. It’s also a typical fault in the hydraulic pressure system designs, for those who do not know about these issues. It is worth asking: Did the protection systems for these hydraulic processes work? Do they exist? Obviously it is already known that they didn’t work; someone from Aguas de La Habana should explain about the protections for hydraulic systems in the country, because investments, repairs, replacements and other interventions in breakdowns like this cost a lot of money.”
In statements to this newspaper, a resident of La Rampa said that he has been without water service for more than two weeks. With his house for sale and waiting to receive the Humanitarian Parole that will allow him to emigrate to the United States, he says: “I had to change the text of the ad, because before it said that the house was in an area where ‘water is not lacking’ and that is now known to be a lie. No one can say that about any house in this city or in this country.”
Translated by Regina Anavy
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