In Centro Habana, neighbors use buckets to block Reina Street in protest at the lack of supply.
14ymedio, Darío Hernández, Havana, August 20, 2025 — Guanabacoa evokes the orishas, Catholic processions and water, a lot of water, as reflected by the Taína word that gave it its name: land of rivers and hills. Although its springs remain part of the collective and religious imagination, dry water pipes are changing the way many residents perceive one of the most dilapidated municipalities in the Cuban capital.
“Here in my house we are lucky because the water sometimes arrives, but it’s been months since that block has had it,” says Carmita, a neighbor who lives a few meters from Calle Corrales, epicenter of the most serious supply problems in the area. “People have to come here to fill their buckets,” she says, adding “not that much comes in, you have to have a pump to get it out.”
La Loma de Corrales — Corrals Hill — which gives name to the street, is an insurmountable obstacle for the old water pipes that have little pressure. To the law of gravity are added problems with the electricity supply, the poor state of the pumping equipment in the aqueducts and, especially, the chaotic handling of the valves that allow water to reach the neighborhood.
“This problem has been going on for over 20 years, but it got more complicated when they did some work in 2022,” adds Carmita.
“This problem has been going on for more than 20 years, but it got more complicated when they did some work in 2022,” adds Carmita. She is referring to works that enabled a new continue reading
“Since then, water has stopped coming in frequently,” says a neighbor. The lack of pressure that the whole area suffers forces residents, like Carmita, to have a ‘water thief ‘ able to suck the pipes to extract every last drop. But in the houses on Calle Corrales, not even the most powerful pump can get anything out most of the time.
“Right now we have gone 20 days without having any water,” says a young man who has just returned this Monday from the municipal office of People’s Power where complaints and claims about the water supply are coming more often. “”When they send a water truck, it is barely enough for three houses, and that is every 20 days or more. No one can live like this,” he emphasizes.
This Tuesday, in Centro Habana, a group of people protested by blocking Reina Street with buckets after going seven days without water. Their complaints even reached the international press, while Guanabacoa, with very few investments in infrastructure in recent decades, is still considered by many to be the most forgotten municipality of Havana. Its historic center has suffered numerous building collapses; its rivers are visibly polluted; many streets lost
their asphalt years ago; and demands on the hydraulic system, installed in the first half of the twentieth century, have grown along with the emergence of slums. The urgency of a renovation project is obvious, but the Havana Water Company does not have the resources to tackle it.
“They blow us off, tell us that the country lacks currency to buy what’s needed abroad; it’s the same speech as always,” complains a resident from inside her doorway, where she takes shelter from the strong August sun. “The water trucks they send are small, and the water, when it arrives, has a strange color, like it’s dirty.”
The protest calls out other affected people who end up improvising an assembly on a corner near Corrales. “The answer they give is that they write you down on paper and do nothing, nothing. They throw the papers in a drawer. They said that by today they would see if they could send us a water truck,” the young man complains. “They keep us guessing, because when the water comes they cut off the electricity, and we can’t fill anything. Since the 15th of last month, we haven’t had any water.”
Several residents point to a mishandling of the valves located in the area known as El Mikito as the main cause for the low pressure that prevents the inhabitants of Corrales street from having water in their pipes. They have been able to continue bathing and cooking thanks to the solidarity of those who live in areas where supplies do arrive and allow them to fill their buckets.
Several residents report poor valve management in the area known as El Mikito as the main cause of the low pressure.
“In my house we carry it from the neighborhood of Santa Maria, in buckets and small tanks. All this past year I have had to put some bottles in the same cart as the propane tank, and I go up and down that hill several times a day,” points out another resident who joins the improvised meeting where emotions run high and reports of the laziness of the institutions are repeated.
“The Havana Water Company is doing a bad job, because when they open the tap in El Mikito the water has a little more pressure. They will have to change the employee who takes care of it here. Change him or kick him out,” speculates an old woman with a face full of despair. “What they are doing is filling swimming pools and making money,” she says.
The discussion dissolves when the imperative of going out to fetch water imposes itself. One with a wheelbarrow, another with a shopping cart and a third with a backpack, they leave in different directions. They will not return until they have filled the bottles and buckets they carry. In La Loma de Corrales, whole families are waiting to start cooking, bathing and washing clothes.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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