A press release titled " The truths of Cuba " published by Granma at the beginning of the year states in part:
"The truth about Cuba is the country where the human being is the most valuable: a life expectancy at birth of 77.9 years on average; coverage of free healthcare for all his people; an infant mortality rate of 4.9 per thousand live births, figure that it exceeds U.S. standards and is the lowest on the continent, slightly lower than the Canada; an entire population literate and with full access to all levels of education for free; 96% of participation in the general elections of 2008, a democratic process of discussion of the economic and social guidelines, prior to the 6th Congress of the party."
And no water. In spite all of the impressive and
commendable accomplishments of Fidel's Revolution like the free education, healthcare, longevity, voting
(even when there is only a single candidate 'nominated' for every single high post in the government), etc.,
Cubans still have no water.
Another article published by the government's official website, cubadebate.cu, under the title "Aguaaaaaa-- reveals that more than one million citizens in Havana are affected by lack of water. A situation which required service schedules to be adjusted and the water distribution cycles to be lengthened. More than 86,000 people receive their water via trucks ("pipas" in the Cuban vernacular).
The article can be found here:
http://www.cubadebate.cu/opinion/2011/06/12/aguaaaaaa/
A more recent article, still on the subject of water, and published by the same website, states in part:
"More than 7 decades of use cause 50% of the water pumped through the existing system of hundredths of kilometers of pipes to be lost."
[Note to self: Damn, apparently, Batista, the mafia, the CIA and the marines built one hell of a water system that endured use and abuse"and the embargo, for 70 years.]
The comments allowed to be posted by "management' following the article tell the story more eloquently than all the above articles put together. One poster by the screenname of Aficionado1992 wrote :
"This topic is of great concern.
On one hand, the system of distribution is a disaster. On the other, people do not have the necessary
resources to properly maintain the system inside their homes. Please make some serious, professional and
well executed investments in the water distribution systems and guarantee the
stable and affordable prices (without subsidies but not at the outrageous and
unaffordable prices they are now) of
A second commenter by the name of MISHA said :
"The problem with the drought only
affects the people. I have seen several
pipas (
The last poster, by the name of korfe, stated :
"Draught? No. Waste? Plenty of it. There are leaks all over the city and they can't even perform repairs that will last. And let's not blame the lack of materials needed for the repairs. While we can't find materials at the regular stores (where the prices are set in Cuban pesos), the new state stores (where the prices are set in Convertible Pesos or currency converted from US Dollars), have plenty of them but at prices that can't be paid by the average worker because the average price of a piece of pipe or hose is the equivalent of a month's salary. However, it would be beneficial to the government to make such an investment as it would save a great deal of water and resources. With the money they save, they can afford to fix all the leaks in the pipes so that the water is not wasted along the way. Think about it."
The article and comments can be found here:
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
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