with the supply suspended, a State truck distributes
“In the end we took four buckets, two for my husband and two for me,” a neighbor told ’14ymedio’
By Juan Diego Rodriguez (14ymedio)
HAVANA TIMES – It’s been ten days since Hurricane Rafael passed through Cuba leaving a lot of water on the streets but little in family cisterns. In Havana alone, more than 200,000 people are still without water service. Despite its “limited resources,” the Government has begun to send sporadic trucks to supply the people of Havana.
In the neighborhood of Luyanó, residents have been waiting for days for the arrival of “the blessed vehicle” that, unlike the classic “pipas” – which are loaded with a large metal tank -has four or five plastic tanks on its trailer, which goes from one side of the city to the other. Some water spills out, an almost inevitable waste – especially in the current shortage – because of the number of potholes in the streets.
“For more than ten days, since before the hurricane, we couldn’t get water in this neighborhood. The explanation they gave is that this is an elevated area and the pumping is deficient. I have very little left in the tanks in my yard,” Marta told this newspaper. This Saturday she finally saw the vehicle arrive at her door. Relieved, she began to gather pots, buckets, pails and even washbasins, but the indications “from above” do not allow the truck to distribute more than “two buckets per head.”
Marta joined the disappointed line of neighbors who, with containers in hand, waited to fill theirs with a dirty hose. “In the end we got four buckets, two for my husband and two for me. If they don’t pass by every day, what am I supposed to do with so little water?” she asks the woman, who predicts that the small amount of water will go for cooking and drinking.
In Nuevo Vedado the situation is not so critical, but for Alina, the acquisition of water is not going well. “I live on the top floor of a building and, although they bring the water every two or three days, little comes in and benefits the neighbors below first. The upper floors barely have a few brief minutes with the supply when it comes,” she explains.
“To top it off, we have a tank connected to the pipes, but the pipe broke in the hurricane, and while until we fix it, we have to depend on what arrives in the building,” says Alina. But she adds: “We are not the worst off. The building on the corner of Boyeros and Conill has 26 floors, and those people don’t even have a terrace where they can place tanks, hang clothes or calm themselves down with this mess,” she says.
Complaints have also been posted on social networks, especially at the bottom of the Aguas de La Habana page. “We don’t need explanations, we need water, and not a just truck with a hose, because we are over 60 years old and can’t carry water to the fourth floor,” claimed a user. Others, with more sense of humor or more resigned, are convinced that the Government is forcing them to “pass a course in going thirsty.”
Translated by Regina Anavy for Translating Cuba.
Read more from Cuba here on Havana Times.
