The drought that has been thrashing Cuba's eastern provinces for almost two years is now hitting the central and western regions of this Caribbean country, report the authorities. More than 1.8 million people are receiving water distributed by tanker trucks, around 100,000 of them in Havana, said Jorge Luis Aspiolea, president if the National Water Resources Institute.

''We have water every two or three days, and it lasts barely two hours. You have to hurry to collect as much as possible,'' said Estrella Jiménez, who lives in the capital's historic district.

The Meteorology Institute says January was very dry, and that 2004 ended with the lowest total precipitation since 1901. Water reservoirs are at just 35 percent capacity.

In some regions, the water reserves are not enough to last 120 days.