DEVELOPMENT-CUBA: Havana is Thirsty While Water Leaks Away

By Patricia Grogg Reprint | | Print |

Patricia Grogg

HAVANA, Sep 15 1999 (IPS) - A water system that has been operating for more than four decades, frequent ruptures and leaks leading to the loss of half of all water distributed, and power outages are conspiring against the supply of clean water to the Cuban capital.

Authorities acknowledge that 1,800 of Havana’s 4,000 kms of water pipes are in poor shape.

Eighty-five percent are more than 45 years old, and 50 percent 70 years old, which combined with internal household leaks leads to the loss of a full 53 percent of the water distributed throughout the city.

Added to the problems caused by the deterioration of the pipes are shortages in the city’s 41 sources of potable water in times of drought.

In some areas of the city, it is common to see people carrying water in all kinds of containers.

“In my house we have running water every other day, and you just have to adjust your life to that schedule,” commented Alina Díaz, 36, a clothing store employee who lives in the Poey neighbourhood on the westside of Havana.

The lack of running water makes daily life in Cuba – in the grip of a severe economic crisis for nearly a decade – even more complicated, because “you have to make sure you fill up all your containers, and even then, the cleaning and washing piles up for the weekend,” she added.

Díaz is not alone. Water is rationed in many neighbourhoods of Havana, a city of just over two million.

“I live in Vedado, in downtown Havana, and the problems with water even keep me awake at night,” said Claudia Rojas, whose building is being supplied by water brought in by trucks until the pipes are repaired.

Nearby, neighbours watched in frustration for weeks as precious water flowed into the ground from a house whose plumbing had sprung a leak. The family’s water supply has now been suspended.

Many families have a hard time covering the cost of internal repairs.

The governmental Provincial Office of Aqueducts and Sewerage reported that since 1997, more than 50,000 leaks have been patched up annually, although “the deterioration has reached such an extent that it is not infrequent for pipes be fixed in one place to immediately break in another.”

“That’s how we lose a large part of the 1.4 million cubic metres of water supplied daily,” said a water company official, who pointed out that the total amount of water distributed climbed from 408 million to 529 million cubic metres a year from 1990 to 1998.

The measures taken by local authorities to prevent people from wasting water include fines for those who leave taps running unnecessarily or use pumps to take water from the mains without authorisation.

For years, repairs were put off due to the high costs involved. But the gravity of the situation has forced authorities to seek formulas for upgrading the water supply system nationwide in this country of 11 million.

The solution requires millions of dollars in investments simply to improve distribution, without even increasing supply to cover unmet demand, said the president of the National Institute of Water Resources, José Luis Aspiolea.

The first areas targeted were three municipalities in western Havana – La Lisa, Marianao and Playa – where results have already been achieved by the Waters of the West Company, which began to operate in 1997, administered by a Spanish consortium, with a credit of 10 million dollars.

Aspiolea reported that a joint venture would soon begin to improve distribution in downtown Havana, with 20 million dollars in financing.

Ramón Rodríguez, director of the Havana water system, told a local radio station that “the creation of this company, with a higher level of financing, provides possibilities for a gradual resolution of the city’s serious water problems.”

In the past nine years of economic crisis, major investments have also gone towards the sources of water. “Just three of the 54 existing sources required a 1.2 million dollar investment for the purchase of pumping equipment,” Rodríguez added.

Official sources say 98 percent of Havana residents receive water through pipes, although leaks cause frequent scheduled interruptions of service through the operation of valves. That means that in the space of a few hours, the water mains receive the flow that should have been circulating all day long.

That submits the pipes to a flow that they were not designed to handle, which leads to their further deterioration, experts point out.