In homes where water has not come in for days, residents have started using plastic bags when they need to go to the bathroom.
Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 21 August 2024 — The trick is to insert a hose into the pipes that run through the streets and sidewalks in front of the houses. If the right place is found, in the artery through which the liquid runs, the water thief can begin the robbery. “When I hear the little noise the pumps make in the morning, I immediately know that the water has arrived. The problem is that it comes with so little force that it doesn’t manage to rise to the tanks or fill the cisterns,” says Dinorah, a resident of the Luyanó neighborhood in Diez de Octubre who spoke with 14ymedio.
On Rodríguez Street, near where the Havana woman lives, water comes infrequently and the residents have opted to “get those little gadgets” to make the most of the days when there is water. The problem says Dinorah, is that “the little water that comes in is no longer distributed equally, and while some manage to fill their reserves thanks to the turbine, others do not receive a drop,” she explains.
And to top it off, she adds, “in a country of the blind, the one-eyed man is king, so whoever has a pump that pulls the most gets the most water,” she says.
Dinorah is aware that water thieves are not a modern method. “This has always been done, but now everyone steals water, even if others don’t get it,” she explains. Now, she continues, they even sell the pumps in SMSEs. “The other day my husband went to a private hardware store and there was a man at the counter asking if the turbine they were sel