In 2024, about 600 thousand Cubans received service from water through pipes, as a consequence of problems in pumping equipment and constant blackouts.
According to a report from the National Institute of Hydraulic Resources (INRH), aforementioned by the Cuban News Agencymost of them came through tank cars and the rest by means of third parties.
The INRH points out that 80 % of the total number of customers arrived with cycles more than 15 days, while the highest periods of supply occurred in Santiago de Cuba, Granma, Holguín, Villa Clara, Mayabeque, Artemisa and Pinar del Río .
In September of last year, 40 % of people with water supply difficulties responded to equipment problems and 39 % to the electric power deficit, a scenario that persists since October 2023.
Then Antonio Rodríguez, president of INRH, said in the Round table that the figure of affected by different causes in that period exceeded the million Cubans.
For that date, of 3,674 pumping equipment positions that the island has, only 3 381, about 293 less. According to Rodríguez, aforementioned by Cubadebate, There were 229 teams that were not in their positions, and 1 200 with more than 10 years.
Between 2023 and 2024, more than 1,200 pumping equipment arrived in the country, of which 866 respond to the change of the energy matrix, Rodríguez said after highlighting that there were still 200 to be assembled.
In a first phase, he added, the work would concentrate on the pumping stations less than 10 kilowatts, which total 1 312. Of these operations more than 350 thousand people have benefited, “especially in isolated communities.”
According to the official, the crisis that crosses in recent years the water service “has been granted a high level of priority” that translates into “the execution of approved credits.”
The supply sources of the capital are frequently affected by different reasons, among which the usual cuts in the supply of electricity, the obsolescence of the pumping equipment and the deterioration of the drivers, which joins the impossibility of Perform the necessary maintenance.
