The Havana Manufactured Gas Company is going through the worst crisis of the last two decades. Without tubes, spare parts and other accessories that allow the maintenance of its residential networks, the state entity, belonging to the Union Cuba Petróleo (Cupet), is unable to respond to reports of breakages or new service installations.
“This did not start now, this has been going on for a long time and it was seen coming that we were going to reach the critical state we are in now,” he told 14ymedio an employee of the Manufactured Gas Company, which has two production plants in the Cuban capital: one in the industrial zone of Old Havana and another located in the municipality of Marianao.
“Right now we cannot make repairs that require tubes and elbows, or any other piece, we are even missing the hoses,” says the employee who manages a maintenance vehicle that is regularly parked near the Calzada del Cerro. “The only thing we are doing here is cutting or threading the tubes that users bring in.”
“The gas technicians came but they told us that the neighbors should look for the tubes to do the new installation because they don’t have them”
Virginia Bringas, 68 years old and resident in the Pueblo Nuevo neighborhood, in Central Havana, is one of the clients affected by the company’s lack of supplies. “I reported a leak at the entrance to our building and it has been like this for months. The gas technicians came but they told us that the neighbors should look for the tubes to do the new installation because they don’t have them.”
In its repairs, the Manufactured Gas Company mainly uses galvanized metal pipe [con un recubrimiento de zinc] and with measures of three quarters or a half. Pieces are also needed to join these tubes, hoses to connect them to the kitchens and consumption counters. “They told me that they have nothing and that there are also problems with the fuel to move the technicians,” laments Bringas.
A call to the company’s breakdown reporting service confirms that the time between reporting a problem and possible repair has been taking longer in recent weeks. “Is it a gas leak due to a break or because you need to make a change in the installation?” asks an employee on the other end of the phone line. “We will pass the report on to the specialists so that they can make the pertinent evaluations.”
If the breakdown seems urgent, with a gas leak and danger to people, “then they move faster but many times what they do is put a plug in the pipe,” explains Bringas, who has already followed the procedure on several occasions. “When they arrive and see the leak, they close the gas inlet and leave again. It’s up to the neighbors then to start looking for the pipes to repair.”
In the informal market, a four meter long strip of galvanized pipe costs around 2,000 pesos. In the Virginia Bringas building, they need three like this to “make the completely new installation inside the apartments because what they did a few years ago was botched: they put the tubes at the entrance of the building and with the passage of people they They have been hurting.”
“What they did a few years ago was a botched job: they put the tubes at the entrance to the building and with the passage of people they have been damaged”
In addition to the 6,000 pesos that they would need to complete the number of pipes, the residents of Bringas must also add the costs of the pieces that join the pieces of pipe. “We have already taken accounts and from 8,000 pesos it does not go down, although it can reach more. But if the company does not have a way to fix this problem, we will have to pay that amount because our security depends on it.”
A worker from the state entity adds that the current crisis comes at a time when there has been “an increase in calls with reports of breakages.” As he details, the Saratoga hotel explosionwhich an initial report indicated as the cause of a gas leak, triggered since last May the claim of customers for a leak or other type of irregularity in their domestic facilities.
At that time, an informative note from the Company reported that it had reinforced attention to reports of possible gas leaks and completed 15 brigades with the necessary means and equipment to respond to possible emergencies. “But we are working practically with our hands because we don’t have parts,” adds the source who spoke with this newspaper.
The lack of pipelines does not only affect the supply of manufactured gas. The company’s inputs very often ended up on the black market and were used to build a fence as well as to make supports for water tanks, air conditioning units or other accessories that require strong metal that does not get damaged by rain. .
For the company worker it is clear that the magnitude of the problem goes beyond the act of being able to light a stove and cook: “People did everything with those tubes, but they don’t exist anymore.”
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