The reservoirs in the Guantanamo province are in a critical situation. According to a note in the official newspaper overcomeTogether they accumulate 113 million cubic meters of the 344 million capacity they have, that is, they are only 33% full.
More than 76,000 people are at risk of drought, according to the note, “due to the partial or total depletion of 32 sources of supply in the municipalities of El Salvador, Imías, Maisí, San Antonio del Sur, Guantánamo, Manuel Tames and Niceto Perez”.
The increase in rainfall since last month, says José Antonio Reyes, an official with the Hydraulic Exploitation Company, is hardly a relief. The “more than 14 million cubic meters” that fell, indicates the provincial newspaper, is “a welcome but insufficient figure”, which does not cover “even half” of the storage.
In any case, the official press blames the situation on the fact that “rainfalls maintain irregularities”
The information details that the reservoir that received the most water was Jaibo (6 million cubic meters), but that this was “partly due to the total restriction of its deliveries”, followed by Faustino Pérez (4 million), which supplies to the city of Guantánamo, with 770 liters per second.
The one from La Yaya, continue overcome, only earned two million, having a capacity of 160 million, which is 32%. This dam supplies the agricultural areas of Guantánamo, Niceto Pérez and Caimanera.
In any case, the official press blames the situation on the fact that “rainfalls maintain irregularities”, which “have benefited above all the highlands of the municipalities and not to the same extent the receiving basins that feed the reservoirs.”
The most eastern of the provinces is the one with the most problems of drought and desertification. This, together with the strong emigration towards the western zone of the Island, make the phrases “Guantánamo is a desert” widespread.
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