(EFE).- A severe drought has left more than 400,000 people in Cuba without water supply, state television reported Thursday. The provinces with the greatest scarcity are the eastern Guantánamo, Santiago de Cuba, Holguín, Las Tunas and Camagüey, as well as Havana.
In the report, the president of the National Institute of Hydraulic Resources (INRH), Antonio Rodríguez, warned that the forecasts indicate that it will rain below average in March, April and possibly in May.
Holguín is one of the provinces with the highest levels of affectation because its surface and underground reserves have decreased in the main city and some of its municipalities, such as Gibara and Rafael Freyre, concentrate the main limitations with the water supply.
The report indicated that at the beginning of March more than 67,000 people in Holguín are affected by the water service
The report indicated that at the beginning of March, more than 67,000 people in Holguín are affected by the water service.
The island’s reservoirs store 52% of their filling capacity, which represents some 815 million cubic meters of water below the average for these dates.
To mitigate the situation, actions are carried out in conductors and networks, interconnections of systems, increase in pumping stations, drilling of wells in order to incorporate a greater volume of water in the areas affected by the low levels of rainfall that have caused the drought. .
However, in most cases the repair work is insufficient and only patches that do not improve supply. The authorities have admitted for years that the water lost through leaks is enormous. In 2015, the press claimed that the amount was around 3.4 billion cubic meters.
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