Another Friday Without Water for Thousands of Havana Residents

Another Friday Without Water for Thousands of Havana Residents

14ymedio, Havana, 2 June 2017 – The water supply pipe from the South
Catchment area that suffered a rupture a week ago began to operate on a
trial basis Thursday morning, according to a report by the Havana Water
enterprise. Nevertheless, service has still not been re-established in
all of the capital's municipalities as 14ymedio was able to confirm.

Three tanker trucks supplied water Thursday afternoon to the Tulipan
Hotel which housed the deputies who attended the last special session of
Parliament. The scene of trucks and people moving buckets or tanks was
repeated in the streets and avenues of the capital's most populated
zones on Friday morning.

Industry authorities assured the official press that the connection of
1.2 kilometers of the first two lines of high density polyethylene was
concluded in the stretch where the rupture occurred. But the replacement
pipes have a smaller diameter and will only gradually allow the transfer
of some 1,300 liters per second.

This volume is half that which flowed through the original conduit,
built 60 years ago and whose central, 36-kilometer line is composed of
pipes two meters in diameter.

During the first six days after the break, the number of those affected
exceeded 800,000 people throughout the city. The price of water shot up
on the black market, and a medium-sized "pipe" doubled in price to more
than 50 Cuban convertible pesos (CUC).

As of a week ago, more than one hundred construction workers from the
Institute of National Water Resources and from the Ministry of
Construction worked in order to repair the breakdown, which affected 50
meters of the South Catchment area in the Quivican municipality of
Mayabeque province. It is estimated that the investment to repair the
pipes is about five million Cuban pesos (roughly 200,000 CUC/US$).

The tests are targeted to fill the Palatino central tanks in the
neighborhood of Cerro, which supplies water to the municipalities of
Habana Vieja, Centro Habana, Plaza de la Revolucion, Cerro, Diez de
Octubre and part of Boyeros.

Translated by Mary Lou Keel

Source: Another Friday Without Water for Thousands of Havana Residents –
Translating Cuba -
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