HAVANA, Cuba.- A few days ago I went to the house of Irina Diéguez Toledo, a former co-worker and good friend, who lives on San Cristóbal street at the corner of Recreo, in the area known as the Canal del Hilland it was close to not being able to get there, because the entire block, up to the curbs, was a river of sewage water combined with drinking water, the result of several leaks and broken pipes that exist around it.
There was no way to cross the corner of Suzarte and San Cristóbal streets, and I had to wet my shoes and even my feet with that stream of filthy water that also flooded the surrounding streets, and step over some stones and wood, placed by the neighbors to go from one sidewalk to the other, like improvised bridges.
In some sections the sidewalk is broken, the water rises above it as well, something that makes transit there more difficult.
During my conversation with Irina I asked her if any official body knew about this problem and she answered: “This has been going on for years, and now it is worse. I wrote to the Havana Water Department, the Municipal and Provincial Government, Epidemiology, the Office of Citizen Services of Diaz-Canel… Furthermore, the district delegate and other authorities are aware of this and have not provided a definitive solution.”
She added: “The water is wasted through the leaks and does not reach the house. Many times they turn on the water at night, like yesterday, for example, and I had to wash from 10:00 onwards and finished around 1:00 in the morning. I live alone with my uncle, an elderly sick man whom I take care of. This obligation, and the work I do, have me this thin that you see me as and an enormous fatigue that sometimes makes me fall asleep standing up.”
He continued: “Here you have to be locked up all the time, because the mosquitoes hardly let you live. I put wire mesh on the windows, but if you open a door they come in. They don’t fumigate like they used to. To make matters worse, I have mice in the house because of the uncollected garbage that surrounds us on all sides.”
He showed me where so many mosquitoes come from. On the corner of his house, in the permanent puddles of water, I saw the larvae of these insects, and even tadpoles.
He told me: “I have lived in this place for many years, and the situation has never reached the current state. Do you think it is possible to live like this? real street streams “We can’t even go out onto the pavement without getting our feet wet. This is like Venice, the only thing missing are the gondolas.”
Faced with this overwhelming situation, Irina lets off steam and uploads short videos and photos to Facebook, creating a series entitled: “Flowers don’t grow in my neighborhood.”
Upon leaving my friend’s house, I walked around the area to check the condition of the side streets.
From the corner of San Salvador and Chaple, a few blocks from his house, the water waste begins through several leaks on Meireles, Suzarte, Recreo and other nearby streets.
These streets are on a slope and so the water runs down in a cascade, causing flooding. It only dries up a little when the supply is cut off, although the sewage and blackish slime typical of something very old remain.
The repairs carried out in nearby areas do not seem to have been the best, as the streets are broken and unpaved. Because of the time they have been like this, the grass has grown.
A general concern among residents is that due to breaks and blockages in the sewer system, the water will mix and contaminate, which would cause diseases.
All this occurs a short distance from the Albear aqueduct, in Palatino, which supplies water to a large part of the population of Havana.
The problem is not exclusive to this area of the Cerro. The State has acknowledged the existence of more than 130,000 people in the capital who, due to breakages and leaks, among other things, do not receive water in their homes, and instead obtain it through tanker trucks, or every few days.
