Havana's Water Shortages Blamed on "Adverse Weather Conditions"

Residents of Havana's municipalities of Arroyo Naranjo, Cotorro, and San Miguel del Padrón heard on Friday an explanation from the regime's official press, attributing the prolonged water shortages they are enduring to "adverse weather conditions." The state journalist Bernardo Espinosa, known for his daily appearances to disseminate news from the Cuban Electric Union (UNE), reported for the National News Television on the comprehensive maintenance work being done on power lines and a substation that supplies water systems to the local population.

According to his report, the water supply issues facing residents are due to frequent disruptions "caused by electrical failures triggered by adverse weather conditions." "This is the most challenging period for our electrical networks. The meteorological impact is very strong during this time, causing deterioration in the lines and resulting in numerous power outages," asserted Luis Rodríguez Vargas, technical director of the Havana Electric Company.

However, instead of showcasing the infrastructure affected by the "meteorological impact," the report focused on fixing leaks in the pipes that carry water, showing excavators and work crews replacing damaged sections. In addition to trimming trees and replacing cables and insulation, the joint intervention by Aguas de La Habana and the Havana Electric Company included "everything necessary," according to officials from both state companies.

"We have replaced insulation on six structures, installed new conductors... The country, eh, the Electric Union has made a supreme effort to provide us with the resources needed for the scope of this organized and planned work, and everything is proceeding as expected," Rodríguez Vargas stated.

Guillermo Lamela Aragonés, director of inspection and supervision at the National Institute of Hydraulic Resources, explained that they were "eliminating significant leaks in the 800mm pipeline that runs from the Los Benignos well fields to the Loma del Cielo pump station, which supplies half of San Miguel del Padrón." "This would improve the water supply service, reducing route losses and striving to achieve stability in the municipality, with the goal of providing alternate-day service as it was approximately five months ago," the official added.

"We're working very hard, very hard in Havana. Not a minute is being wasted," assured Mariolys Guilar Ferrer, deputy director of aqueducts and maintenance at Aguas de La Habana.

Present at the works, the general secretary of the Cuban Workers' Central (CTC), the only legal union in the country, Ulises Guilarte de Nacimiento, emphasized that the actions being undertaken "are aimed directly at ensuring a 50-liter-per-second increase in water flows pumped from this area. This will directly impact the number of people receiving the service with quality."

Power Outages and Water Supply in Havana: UNE's New Challenge

Since the intensification of the water supply crisis in the capital, the UNE has been blamed for the water supply issues due to electrical outages. According to Aguas de La Habana, power outages cause damage to the facilities supplying water to the Cuban capital, resulting in several municipalities not receiving the service.

Recently, a lack of electrical power caused a breakdown in the 78-inch pipeline from Cuenca Sur and two other breakdowns in the 1000 pipeline from PAD. According to Aguas de La Habana, their workers labored "throughout the evening, night, and early morning until [finding] a solution."

At the end of July, a blackout in the transmission lines feeding the Cuenca Sur water supply field destroyed the main conductor, leaving half of Havana without water. At that time, Aguas de La Habana explained that the sudden loss of electrical power had caused a total interruption of pumping, which in turn caused several "water hammer" effects in the main conduit of that source, leading to its collapse in three places.

It is difficult to understand how water can cause "water hammer" in a pipeline where no water is being pumped because a blackout stopped the water pump. But that was the explanation given by Aguas de La Habana, placing the ultimate responsibility on the power outage.

In early September, the president of the Water and Sanitation Business Group, José Antonio Hernández Álvarez, acknowledged that the water supply is in a critical state in Cuba but insisted that the main problem is the continuous power outages causing failures in the pumping system.

Hernández Álvarez emphasized that the crisis in the National Electric System (SEN), with multiple faults in the main thermoelectric plants, is one of the key factors worsening the water supply issue. Power outages disrupt the operation of pumping equipment, and when electrical service is restored, it can take up to four hours to pressurize the system and resume normal water distribution, the official explained.

In other words, power outages cause both "water hammer" and "depressurize" the water pipes. The convoluted explanations from both state companies are consistent with the chaos reigning in the government of Miguel Díaz-Canel's so-called "continuity."

Currently, more than 600,000 Cubans lack access to potable water. The situation is particularly complex in Havana, where over 130,000 people have been affected by this issue for days.

In early September, desperate and outraged residents of San Miguel del Padrón, who had been without water for more than two weeks, took to the streets to protest and block their neighborhood roads. Dozens of residents from La Rosita and Siboney gathered in the streets in spontaneous demonstrations. On Calzada de Güines, the crowd, including children, stood in the road, blocking the passage of cars and buses.