Two days late and in obvious response to a published report Tuesday for 14ymedio Regarding the rupture of a reservoir, the official press published this Wednesday an implausible explanation about the “leak” of some 15 tons of shrimp for export in the farms of Tunas de Zaza (Sancti Spíritus).
According to the text published by the local newspaper Escambray and replicated in Cubadebate, the incident was due to “heavy local rain [que] It caused a breakdown in one of the ponds used for shrimp development “in the state-owned company Cultizaza, which caused” the dammed water to overflow and, with it, a good part of the growing biomass “
“Around a ton and a half of the crustacean could be recovered after the precipitous exit of the water through the upper end of the dam,” adds the note based on the explanations offered by the director of Cultizaza, Luis Orlando Rodríguez. However, that day and not the previous days there was no “heavy rain” in that town on the Caribbean coast, as evidenced by the information on the weather published by the local newspaper itself and the meteorological portals.
This is confirmed by the testimonies of several residents of the area. Rafael, one of the locals, assures 14ymedio that in the past few days there have only been “a few light drizzles and the water did not run through the streets.”
Dozens of residents came to the place and loaded with all the shrimp they could, after the Cultizaza employees themselves notified the neighbors
“For a pond to overflow, it must spend at least three days with heavy rains,” Rafael continues, since “the ponds have no water inlet”, neither from a river nor from another source, only sea water is supplied. ” “If all that water that they say had fallen, the first to be flooded would not be the ponds, if not the entire community of Tunas de Zaza because this is a very low area,” he insists.
A worker from the shrimp farm who requested anonymity, specified this Tuesday to 14ymedio that the spill was due to the fact that the retaining walls of the gigantic reservoirs where the crustacean is cultivated are very thin and “have been in operation for a long time without maintenance.” “They emptied the pond next door and the pressure of a meter and a half high burst them,” he explained. “When two contiguous tanks are full they are compensated, but they emptied the one next to it and it could not hold.”
Dozens of residents came to the place and loaded with all the shrimp they could, after the Cultizaza employees themselves notified the neighbors so that the product would not spoil, which was ready to be harvested. “Many people came and took shrimp even in their pockets,” said Yisel, one of the lucky ones.
In his statements to Escambray The director of the company insisted that his workers “showed up immediately” and “collaborated in the collection of the animals, which were already about to be harvested, so the damage was minimal.” Rodríguez neglected to mention that until then Dozens of residents also came in droves who were alerted to the incident and were authorized to collect part of the product.
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