Havana/The crisis in the supply of drinking water in Jobabo, Las Tunas, is a compendium of all the problems that Cuba experiences every day. There are almost 20,000 inhabitants who have not received a single drop of water since September and solving it requires fixing almost completely collapsed roads and a lot of fuel, something the country lacks.
According to a text published this Sunday by the provincial newspaper Newspaper 26“a critical breakdown in the Birama pumping system requires access by a crane to be able to extract the turbine and diagnose its condition,” in a place “that is distant and practically inaccessible due to the poor quality of the road.”
The real problem, according to experts cited by the media, “is not only the damaged pump, but the poor condition of the access road, mainly in the Sirvén-Ramírez section, which is so deteriorated that it prevents the passage of the crane necessary to extract the submersible equipment. Likewise, the embankment from Jobabo to Ramírez is impassable. Therefore, this logistical difficulty has transformed a technical repair into a construction work. major infrastructure.”
Given the panorama, messages full of enthusiasm arrive, but without solid bases. Yudel Milanés García, director of Hydraulic Resources Projects in Las Tunas, said that “they have a well-defined strategy. The first, and most urgent, is to enable viable access to the pumping station, while the second step will focus on the complete repair of the road to provide sustainability for future interventions.”
“The first, and most urgent, thing is to enable viable access to the pumping station”
However, the idea hits a wall, as Daniel Rovira, head of Production at the Hydraulic Resources Construction Company, in charge of the road work, indicated that, although they have the necessary machinery, they depend on the allocation of fuel:
“Technical calculations indicate that between 500 and 700 liters of diesel per day are needed for approximately 10 days just for the first phase of opening the road. This figure reveals the magnitude of the effort required for an operation that should be routine.”
If this plan is carried out, “the complexity deepens,” since the damaged bomb must be transferred to Havana for repair, because there are no specialized workshops in Las Tunas, which “adds another layer of difficulty to the already complicated scenario.”
To try to solve part of the problem, such as distribution to the population, the authorities have proposed making 54 trips with pipes to provide 25 liters of water per person in Jobabo. However, the same Newspaper 26 In recent days he noted that “fuel logistics is key” to that plan. He explained that diesel consumption is required ranging from 20 liters to 250.
In any case, the authorities have not given deadlines to carry out any of the numerous plans that are on the table, to which we should add that the electrical system that feeds the station, “which operates in precarious conditions, with an overused generator set and with a circuit that does not guarantee operational stability due to being in blackout for most of the day.”
The affected inhabitants have found in some official profiles the space to complain about the lack of access to drinking water
The affected inhabitants have found in some official profiles the space to complain about the lack of access to drinking water. In a publication by communicator Yaidel Miguel Rodríguez, who explained all the plans to restore service in the municipality, user Mariela Cruz claimed that they have spent “years talking about the same thing, but the problem persists: the reality is that the town does not have water.”
In the responses they also relate other problems: “The situation in Jobabo is truly critical. The solution seems to take a little while. However, we in Zabalo have been without drinking water service for more than a month because there is no wire to repair the submersible turbine. It is not that we are selfish, but if they do not have a solution for the big problem in Jobabo, why don’t they deal with the small problems that exist with four rural communities.”
In some cases, the crisis has forced some residents to seek to buy drinking water on pages that sell different items. In a publication this Sunday, a user offered to pay, through the American service Zelle, for 20 or 40 liters.
Meanwhile, the inhabitants of Jobabo, said Newspaper 26“they face the paradox of knowing that the solution exists, but it depends on effective coordination between institutions, the timely allocation of resources and the overcoming of bureaucratic and logistical obstacles that until now have unnecessarily prolonged their critical situation.”
