In total, the equipment guarantees a delivery of 100 gallons per second to Las Tunas’ main city
14ymedio, Havana, 14 November 2024 — For at least a year, as described by the official press, the water supply situation has been “one of the most sensitive issues” in Las Tunas. The water pumps in the main city, which for more than two decades were barely maintained, stopped working one by one, affecting thousands of customers. The province has had the equipment to resume service for a month, but it was not until this week that the installation actually began.
Of the 10 electric pumps acquired by the country – the official press does not clarify their origin – and destined for the water treatment plant of the El Rincón reservoir, which mainly supplies the city, only four have been installed. One of these, for lack of a “cable,” did not come into operation immediately either.
In total, the equipment guarantees a “delivery” of 100 gallons per second to the city, out of the 132 gallons promised. But the problem of supply in the province is not reduced to sending water from dams and wells to the water treatment plant and from there to the towns. It involves the repair of the pipes, drains and conductors that limit the arrival of water to homes.
The arrival of the equipment, however, is already giving relief to some residents
This Wednesday, Periódico 26 published an article praising the start of the repair work on a section of “sanitary connections,” whose breakage affects the lives of the 16,460 residents in the Alturas de Buena Vista neighborhood, “one of the areas considered vulnerable,” according to the media.
The arrival of the equipment, however, is already giving relief to some residents, whom Periódico 26 did not take long to interview. “The assembly of two electric pumps in the drinking water treatment plant that bring water to this city has caused the population to comment today, among neighbors, on the arrival with sufficient pressure of the essential liquid to different places in the provincial capital,” the media highlighted, quoting a grateful resident in the neighborhood of Aguilera: “It’s great that we now have water.”
The newspaper pointed out that “the obsolescence of the technology that guaranteed, and continues to do so in part, the water supply to Las Tunas made it impossible to respond to the needs of this service in different parts of the city.” In summary, the “total equipment,” which the province has not received since 2007, when “the pumps from [the time of] the Energy Revolution* were replaced” is not enough either.
Hence, Periódico 26 continues, Recursos Hidráulicos will mobilize pipes to move water “to various places, but without covering all the needs for obvious reasons: the limitations with fuel that affect the economy and services in Cuba.”
Work on the facilities has required the intervention of “a specialized brigade”
The work on the facilities that were in “very poor condition” has required the intervention of “a specialized brigade with mechanics, electricians, assemblers and welders,” the authorities explain.
The supply situation in the province was on the verge of collapse since at least November 2023, when, with the reservoirs 75% full, about 90,000 people in Las Tunas did not have running water. A month later, 100,000 people received it by tanker truck and another 6,267 by train. Since then the problem has worsened, but the press was careful when it came to giving the number of people affected or saying how long the water service would take, which in some places was months.
Likewise, the press assures that during this time they have not stopped the delivery of water by tanker truck to the residents, while El Rincón underwent “a comprehensive repair, the most complete since it was inaugurated 25 years ago.” The almost obsolete equipment, which the pumps replaced, would be installed “in other places that are less favored.”
Although the situation of Las Tunas is one of the worst in the country, due to the long period that residents have suffered from the lack of water, the passage of Hurricane Rafael wreaked havoc on the supply systems of the western provinces. Currently in Artemisa, only 59% of the population, including those who receive water by tanker truck, have the service. In Mayabeque there are 11,000 affected, and in Havana, although 79.7% of residents now have service, there are still almost half a million people without supply.
*The Energy Revolution, announced by Fidel Castro in 2005, was a campaign to improve energy efficiency by using renewable resources.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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