The official press woke up this Friday with alerts about the problem in almost all the provincial newspapers
14ymedio, Havana, 4 October 2024 — Along with blackouts and shortages, the lack of water has completed the triad of the crisis in Cuba during the last year. The official press woke up on Friday with alerts in almost all the provincial newspapers attesting to the debacle. Aware of how little has been done and with the usual voluntarism, Deputy Minister Inés María Chapman asked the employees of the sector to “work quickly” to solve a problem that is now urgent.
Chapman traveled to Santiago de Cuba this Friday to check the state of a project that, in theory, will solve the supply problem that affects 85% of the inhabitants of the provincial capital and two neighborhoods of the municipality of San Luis – Paquito Rosales and Dos Caminos – for a total of 15,000 inhabitants. The minister did not spare scolding or utopian requests: “We have to multiply and create work groups, because, in the midst of this complex situation, the priority has to be water,” she said.
The eastern province has shut down its water treatment plant for a general maintenance that is not progressing according to plan. Local leaders said that in some neighborhoods of the city water can only be supplied every 20 days and that the situation has generated “annoyance.” The installations, in addition, suffer from multiple “leaks and other deficiencies,” such as damaged valves.
The San Luis pipeline, 10.7 kilometers long, should be finished by October 10, but there are no guarantees that the deadline will be met. The Government spent, said one of the engineers, 38 million pesos, because the area had “historic problems” with the supply.
In Cienfuegos, on the other hand, the press tells readers that the water problem