Ecobreves – CUBA: : Wilma Left a Lot of Water

By IPS Correspondents and - - Reprint | | Print |

HAVANA, Nov 7 2005 (IPS) - The rains brought by Hurricane Wilma alleviated the drought that had plagued Cuba, with evident benefit for the island's agricultural areas, according to farmers consulted by Tierramérica. “It began to rain here long before Wilma, in August, and we practically didn't need to irrigate the rice paddies. Harvesting was a bit complicated with so much water, but the grain has already dried,” said Rubén Torres, owner of a farm in the central province of Villa Clara, where earlier this year the fields were long parched from the drought.

The Cuban Water Resources Institute announced in early November that the 235 reservoirs exploited throughout the country, with a total capacity of nine billion cubic meters of water, are at 72 percent of their volume.