The National Institute of Hydraulic Resources (INRH) of Cuba reported this Friday on a donation from China of a group of construction equipment in order to deal with the problems caused by the drought in the country.
The organization’s note reviewed by the agency Latin Press specifies that this aid, on the island since last October, will improve the water supply, the cleaning of pits, the unblocking of sewers, as well as the conditioning of the sanitation brigades of the sewage system. Hydraulic resources.
? The National Institute of Hydraulic Resources (INRH) of #Cuba ?? reported today that #China ?? donated a group of construction equipment in order to face the drought problems of the Caribbean nation
More in #PressLatinahttps://t.co/5SipinV4Xe
– Latin Press (@PrensaLatina_cu) April 14, 2023
Since 2014, this initiative began to be managed, conceiving the list of supplies, and in September 2019 the exchange was signed. The implementation of the project was affected by the impact of COVID-19, a context that delayed the internal bidding process.
With the efforts of the Cuban Government, the INRH and the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment (Mincex), the equipment was finally received on October 4, 2022, through the port of Mariel, the report added.
However, and according to the director of International Relations and Collaboration of the INRH, Fermín E. Sarduy, until now the necessary coordination between both parties has not begun to start the implementation of the means, which will be available to the companies of the two business groups served by the organization’s presidency.
The project will benefit the population of the country’s provincial capitals and other urban and peri-urban communities with more than 300 inhabitants.
Among the 449 pieces of equipment donated are high-pressure unclogging trucks, pit cleaners, mobile air compressors, lighting towers, tire-mounted backhoes, graders, crane trucks, and a 90-315 thermofusion welding machine with generator, among others.
The fulfillment of the objectives of the project will benefit around four million people and, in addition, it will allow the movements of equipment from the state reserve system, the message concludes.
Drought in 2023
INRH authorities recently reported that more than 400,000 people in Cuba are affected by meteorological drought, a phenomenon that occurs when there is a prolonged period without rainy or with below average rainfall.
At that time it transpired that in the first ten days of March no rainfall was reported in 137 municipalities of Cuba.
For their part, experts from the Institute of Meteorology have explained that the country is going through the most extreme period of the phenomenon, which should last for the next few months of the dry season.
This segment extends throughout the month of April, while the climatic start of the precipitations of the rainy season is set for after May 15.
Faced with this situation, the island’s government drew up a plan last year with anticipatory measures designed to mitigate the effects of drought.
This includes the execution of more than 200 hydraulic works, including investments and maintenance actions, in order to benefit the supply to about 636,000 inhabitants of the 15 provinces of the country.
