Cuba’s water crisis is affected by problems with the electricity supply
14ymedio, Havana, 28 June 2024 — Havana continues with an intermittent water service, like that suffered by other provinces, in a water crisis that is marked by problems with the electricity supply on the Island. This Friday, if the residents of the capital turn on the faucet, they will surely find some dribbles of water that serve only perhaps, to scrub the floor and fill some containers in order to face the urban drought. The efforts of the Havana authorities to normalize the supply have not yielded the hoped-for results.
Everything dates back to Thursday of last week, when a pipe in Cuenca Sur ruptured from a power surge.
The water shortage has been aggravated these days by the effects on the electricity service, which on Thursday finally exceeded shortages of one thousand megawatts (MW). The Electric Union of Cuba (UNE) predicts for this Friday a maximum demand of 3,150 MW for an availability of 2,160 MW, which entails a deficit of 990 MW and an impact of 1,060 MW. The Antonio Guiteras plant in Matanzas, due to a breakdown in the boiler, is not providing service today, as announced by the UNE. This is nothing new; the plant has been out of service for months, and generation problems are also frequent.
Since last week the flow of water in Havana is improved by zone every fourth day
Faced with such a scenario, the Havana authorities made the decision last week to enhance the flow of water by zone every fourth days. “We are going to guarantee the service, but it will have a marked impact on the day that the water is not flowing,” the director of operations of Agua Habana, Rosaura Socarras, explained on Wednesday in a television interview.
After a meeting held on Tuesday between Havana authorities and state officials, it was reported that the water supply has not recovered its normal volume due to multiple causes; among them, the five motorized water pumping stations out of service – the 3, 4, 15,16 and Rincón 4, said the newspaper Tribuna de La Habana. In addition, the water levels have not yet recovered and are below average despite the heavy rains recorded in recent days.
The problems with the water supply (in Cuba) are not exclusive to Havana. This same Friday, the official press reported that in Villa Clara the Government has invested more than one hundred million pesos in the installation of ten kilometers (6.2 miles) of pipes. These works seek to connect the towns of Mataguá, La Yaya and Jorobada with the Paso Bonito pumping station, located in Cumanayagua, the newspaper Vanguardia reported.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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